See you later
by evenster
Summary: Because that was what she felt during this war, that everything just broke apart and would never be the same again. Nobody and nothing is the same after a war. AU, OC
1. See you later

**I own nothing except of Ann, Cat, Maddie, Evelyn. and anything else that has something to so with the "Rosenheim Offensive".**

"May I help you Captain?"

Surprised by the voice Dick turned around, just to see the most beautiful human being he had ever seen. Well, that's what he told Nixon a few years later. But in that very moment he was only confused. Not only that someone stood behind him and started talking, that someone was also female, German and definitely not supposed to be there.

"I'm sorry but what are you doing here?" He said with a puzzled look on his face.

"I'm here to help you with that Krauts, or whatever you call them." She said with a smile and pointed over his shoulder.

"I'm sorry, again, but how are you going to help me?" Dicks voice was calm as usual but his eyes started to tell a very different story.

"Oh, mon dieu, just shut up, we've got to wait a few more minutes and then you'll see. Trust me, we're experts." Her eyes were fixed on a point behind Dick but he actually didn't want to turn around as she might try to do something stupid behind his back. But on the other hand he really wanted to know what she was looking at and so he turned around, just in time to see some people in green uniforms run all around the place armed with grenades and rifles. They seemed like they had never thought about the fact that there were about 40 Germans covered in the houses just to shoot them. The whole 'attack' as they would have called it was over pretty fast.

"Were those your people?" He turned around to ask the woman but she was gone. The only thing left was a small note pinned against the wall. _See you later._

"Captain Winters that was brilliant. Nobody hurt, nobody dead and we even found some very interesting plans. You've done a good job. No, a great job." Dick sighed and waited. Waited that Colonel Sink would finally stop talking about that action that happened a few hours ago. Dick really didn't like getting the laurels somebody else would deserve but he couldn't tell Sink the truth. He wouldn't believe him anyway.

After their 'attack' the green leprechauns, as Dick called them, just disappeared and let the Easy Company collect everything the Germans had to "give" them. And now the Colonel cheered about their great maneuver although they didn't do anything.

The men of the Easy Company all had seen what happened but had agreed that they wouldn't talk about anything as well as Dick agreed to himself not to tell anybody about the note left by that woman.

Although he was still curious about the meaning behind those words. _See you later. _To him this sounded like a promise. But how could she make such a promise?

* * *

"Captain Winters?" Sink asked with a worried undertone.

"Yes Sir?" Dick suddenly came back in the office. It never happened before that his thoughts drove off while talking with the Colonel.

"You're dismissed." Slowly and still full of thoughts Dick left the office. His feet carried him to his barrack were he immediately sat down and started to look at the note again.

"Maybe I should walk around a little bit." Dick said quietly and headed towards a small forest. As far as he knew the forest was safe and if not, well he had no idea what would happen if not.

The trees whispered their stories as Dick wandered by and slowly he felt alright again. The confusion he had felt since the action was gone. Suddenly, he heard some other noises which had their origin definitely not by anything a normal forest could offer. Human voices so quit he couldn't understand them but still loud enough to hear them. Dick slowly walked towards a bush were the voices seemed to came from.

"Jetzt beweg dich endlich du Idiot." "Wow, jetzt mal ganz ruhig mit den jungen Pferden." " Bist du irre, oder so? Er hört uns mit Sicherheit!" "Natürlich hört er uns, so wie ihr brüllt." "Jetzt geh schon." "Muss ich?" "Ja!"

The last word was louder than the others and while it still evaporated someone stumbled through the bush right in front of Dick. He himself had already taken his knife as a sort of self defense and cursed himself for being so stupid and going in the forest alone without a real weapon. The reason for taking his knife out was the language the persons were talking in. It was definitely German and even though Dick didn't understand anything he knew that this meant trouble.

But what he saw when this German had made it trough the bush actually really surprised him. It was the woman again. The woman who saved their asses. The woman who belonged to the green leprechauns.

"So, you were serious when you 'said' that we'll see as again?" He tried to look as emotionless as always but he couldn't help it and just had to smile about her appearance, the branches in her hair and the annoyed look she gave him.

"Of course I were serious. And now please put away your knife, stop looking so damn happy and ask me your real question." Dick realized that she watched him precisely as he put away his knife and looked at least a little bit more relaxed when it had disappeared in his pocket again.

"Okay, who are you?" Now, she was the one who smiled to 'damn' happy as she would have said and gave the bush a little sign. Or better, the people behind the bush.

Dick was surprised when another woman stepped out from behind the bush and even more surprised when two others followed. Mysteriously, they all 4 looked the same a little bit.

"You're kidding me aren't you?" He asked but actually hoped that she wasn't. Cause if she was, this would cause him even more trouble.

"Oh hell no, but you should know this by now. I mean, that I'm usually not kidding. Well, whatever let me introduce you Captain Madeleine Hegenstein, Lieutenant Caitlin van Veden and Lieutenant Evelyn Rosenthal. Don't say anything about the names we didn't choose them." While introducing her companions she pointed at each one of them and Dick used the time to realize that they weren't looking like each other at all. The first one was pretty tall for a woman but still smaller than the woman who hadn't introduced herself. Madeleine Hegenstein, or Maddie as Dick decided to call her in his thoughts had light brown hair and stunning blue eyes. He could spot a few freckles on her face and was quite sure that she would've looked amazing with a better haircut.

The second one, Caitlin was about as high as an average woman was, had brown curly hair and brown eyes and the only mistake Dick could spot was her facial expression. She looked like she was going to murder someone in the next 5 minutes or less.

The last one, Evelyn was the smallest had blonde hair and a bright smile. Her eyes were blue and her whole behavior just screamed 'I am loveable' but you would never expect her to scream. She just seemed to nice for doing something like that.

"It's a pleasure to meet you ladies, but this still doesn't answer my question who you are." Dick nodded at the three and looked at the woman suspiciously.

"Alright, alright. I'm Captain Ann Goersen and to answer your next question: We belong to the Rosenheim Offensive. That's a German underground organization against Hitler. Yes, there are woman in this Offensive and no, we don't have our ranks because of that."

Dick nodded again and looked at her a little bit more exact. She also had brown hair but hers was braided and her eyes were blue as well but they seemed to just change the color whenever she looked in a new direction.

"Did you wait here for me all day?" He tried to be funny although he knew that he wasn't but maybe it would help to make Caitlin look at him at least a little bit nicer. He actually really worried about what might happen with him in her brain right now. But his 'joke' let her just roll her eyes while Maddie and Ann sighed and Evelyn looked a little bit disappointed at him.

"No, we did not wait for you all day, we planned the whole thing a little bit different but whatever. We should really start to talk about our business now." Ann pulled some papers from within her pockets and gave them to Dick.

"These are the plans you need. Give them somebody, say you got them from a reliable source and don't let your thoughts drift away again."

Dick looked at her puzzled. How could she know?

"It's pretty obvious isn't it? You came here all alone without a weapon and one could tell from 1 mile away that your thoughts were not where they should have been. You walked towards some German voices from behind a bush and didn't do anything to your protection. There are only two possibilities Captain Winters. You're either in love or everything that happened today didn't let you think properly. As far as I know it's pretty unlikely that you fall in love so there's the answer, isn't it? And now my friend, goodbye, we've got to leave before your old being comes out again." And with a last smile the four disappeared into the wood.

Dick stood there and didn't move at all. He just stood there and let his thoughts drift away.

* * *

"Hey Dick! Are you alright? You look like you've seen a ghost." Nixon 'fought' his way trough the trees and finally reached his friend.

"Actually, four of them." Dick said, shook his head and headed towards the barracks again.

Nix stood their in silence just watching his friend disappear and couldn't stop himself from wondering whether a woman might have had her hands in this game.

Lew got into their barrack shortly after Dick and immediately asked him what was really going on. But Winters only shook his head again and sat town on his bed.

"You're kidding me, aren't you? Dick you leave the camp without telling anyone where you're going, you let your weapon here and you still refuse to answer such a simple question. What's wrong with you today? What happened? Is it about the job you and the men did earlier? I know something happened but the men don't answer my questions either. Nobody died, so what is your fucking problem?"

Dick sighed and looked into Lews eyes. He should tell him but before he could even open his mouth Nixon started talking, again.

"You know what. Forget it. You don't have to tell me and I'm done with talking like an over protective housewife."

"You still do."

And then they laughed. They hadn't laughed in a long time and it was freeing. For a short time they were young men again who only prepared for a fight but never fought a war. And after that Dick told Lew what had happened. About Ann and the other 'green leprechauns'. But mostly about Ann.

"Maybe she was wrong." Lew said after Dick ended his story with the last words Ann said to him. "What do you mean 'maybe she was wrong'? About what?" Dick couldn't imagine anything she could have been wrong about. She hadn't talked that much anyway and what she had said all sounded pretty true in his ears.

"About you 'not falling in love'." Lew said with a smile and chuckled. "Maybe you did fall in love."

"Hahaha, very nice theory Lew but with whom should I fall in love with? I mean except for you?" Dick shook his head about the stupid idea his friend just had. But Lew just smiled even brighter and got up.

"With Ann." And then he just left the barrack and a confused Dick in there.


	2. Carpe Diem

"Do you like him?"

Silence.

"Do you like him?"

Ann still didn't answer. She just continued reading her book.

"Do you like him, Ann? Do you like Captain Winters?"

With a sight Ann looked up and shook her head.

"Why not? He seems to like you and you have to admit he's definitely attractive and he's taller than you. I thought that was always your greatest criterion?" Caitlin seemed to be a little surprised about Anns negation. "What's the problem?"

"He's ginger, has freckles and reminds me a little bit of an Eskimo. I don't see any point for finding him attractive." Ann explained and continued reading. She really didn't want to talk about this whole thing. She made some big mistakes and didn't want to remember them.

"You're stupid." Cat said, turned around and left the house. Well, house is a big euphemism. Actually, it has been a house but the bombs destroyed it nearly completely and so only a few walls and a very small part of the roof were still there to remind the people what the war made of everything.

"Probably." Ann whispered, more to herself than to anyone else. There was no one there to listen to her anyway. She was currently reading _'Im Westen nichts Neues' _and one could kill her for owning that book as it was forbidden in the Third Reich.

* * *

After Caitlin left the 'House' she headed towards the tree were she expected to find Maddie. It was a short walk but Cat liked being out in the nature and seeing that at least not everything was going down. Because that was what she felt during this war, that everything just broke apart and would never be the same again. Nobody and nothing is the same after a war. It was not only about dying and living even if it sometimes seemed so, no it was also about the how. How did you survive? How did you die? Was there a smile on your face or was there blood? Both?

War spars nobody. If you survive your father dies. If everyone stays alive your house is burned down. If nothing happens at all you realize you fought for the wrong side. Even if there's no physical damage there's always a psychic.

And with those thoughts Cat reached the tree and on the tree was, as she had thought, Maddie sitting starring in the distance.

"What are you thinking about?" Caitlin asked with a slight smile.

"Do you think you could survive in an army tent under water in a room without any oxygen feed?" Maddie answered and gave Cat a sign to come up. But these just shook her head and sad down on the grass.

"Seriously? We're fighting a war and that's what you are thinking about?" Cat heard Maddie chuckle and then only the wind.

Suddenly, Madeleine interrupted the silence.

"Do you think we're ever going back? I mean if we should survive this shit are we going back to our old lives?" Now it was on Cat to be silent. She didn't know the answer and even if she would have known it she would have stayed silent. Because there was this big question mark all over this sentence. _If we should survive. _Would they survive it? That was a question no one could answer. Evelyn would say: God knows. But Cat refused to believe in something she couldn't see and she also didn't want to believe in something that let happen so much pain and sorrow.

Maddie never expected Caitlin to answer her, she knew as good as everybody around her that their lives were temporary. The only thing she remembered was the answer Ann gave her to the same question: _Carpe Diem. Seize the day. _But Ann did it with the same sad smile she used to wear all the time since war started.

"What is the next thing they are up to?" Cat asked in hope to hear something like _leaving._ Ann and Maddie knew the most about all the plans their organization had and usually told her even if they weren't allowed to.

"Waiting, observing, maybe helping." Maddie answered with a sad undertone and jumped from the tree then she turned around and looked at Cat with a ever sadder smile. "Actually, the have no idea what we should do next. They just want to wait. You know their motto: Don't move until they bomb you. We're going to stay hidden."

Cat stood there in silence watching Maddie disappear behind the next destroyed house.

Maddie was moving to the head quarters in hope to get some real instructions. Something else than _stay hidden._ In the distance she could hear the sound of the war. These guys from the Easy Company must have found some Germans. Or the other way around. Either way they'd probably loose. They already needed help with that small house were they all first met. Well, were Winters and Ann first met.

Maddie still couldn't understand why Ann promised this American Captain that they would meet again and also that they actually did it. Maybe Cat and Evelyn were right and Ann did really fall for him but on the other hand it was still Ann, wasn't it? Ann the one who had always said: _I don't need a man when I'm fighting a war. All I need is a good comrade and maybe some food. _Could war change the priorities of somebody so fast?

When she finally arrived nobody was there. Just a letter on the table labeled to her and Ann. With a sight Madeleine grasped it and stuffed it in her pocket. They would read it later.

"MADDIE SHIT! Captain Hegenstein kommen Sie her! Captain Hegenstein!" Surprised by the use of German Maddie ran out of the door directly in the arms of Evelyn who looked at her in fear.

"Captain the plans are changed, we're moving!" The blonde girl said and would have ran away if Madeleine wouldn't have grabbed her arm to stop her.

"Why? Who told you? What's happening?"

Evelyn took a breath and showed on the street behind her. "The Germans with her tanks." And then she ran away.

Evelyn was now moving to the house were she expected to find Ann. She had already told everyone she could find about what was happening but those people were only Maddie and Cat. There was no one else anywhere around, actually, to her it seemed like they were left alone and the rest of the organization had gone somewhere they were needed or where they would be safe.

She found Ann how Cat left her. Reading the book, not moving at all. Evelyn didn't know what to do as she didn't want to interrupt the Captain but also knew that every second was precious. Luckily, she never had to decide how to bring Ann the bad news because the Captain herself stood up, packed her book away and grabbed her bag from the floor.

"Are you ready, Lieutenant Rosenthal?" And without waiting for Evelyns answer Ann headed towards the window on the other side of the house and left it with the blonde Lieutenant behind her. They were walking calm but fast and reached there destination, the forest, without any problems.

"Grass!" Ann whispered and waited. "Green!" Came the quiet answer from somewhere below them.

"God, Maddie, could you please quit climbing on every tree you find?" Ann hissed but smiled while doing it. At least this fact about Maddie didn't change. At least something had stayed as it was before the war. With a small smile Ann gave Evelyn the sign to stay in a 'hole' behind some bushes while she climbed on a tree as well. That had always been the part she hated most. Staying somewhere and doing nothing. Knowing nothing and hoping that in the end it would turn out well for them. She took the K98 from her shoulder and waited. A few trees away from her she saw Maddie with her SG41 and down on the earth Cat with a MP44 and Evelyn only armed with some grenades and her knife. These weapons were probably everything they had for now. Returning to the HQ wouldn't be safe at all and she doubted that they'd find any other ones in the near future. Only Cat and Maddie had weapons they could really use in a fight as her own K98 was only useful for distances longer than 100 meters.

After checking that everyone was in a good position Ann waited and hoped that the Germans didn't know were they had gone. She didn't want to imagine what would happen if the Krauts would find them.

After a long time of waiting it finally went dark and the only thing Ann saw were a light in the far distance. The source was definitely a fire but the question was who made it. Was it friend or foe? The only way they could find out was going in the direction and observing it. Normally, Ann would now send a couple of scouts but there was no point in doing so as there were only four of them. She gave Maddie a questioning who answered this with a nod and so they climbed and jumped down on the earth again as quiet but also as fast as possible.

After a walk from about fifteen minutes they could see that the fire was actually made by the Americans which meant that they were probably save. As save as you can be in a war. For a short time they stood there in silence.

"Do you think it's clever to lit a fire in the middle of the night when all around you is the enemy?" Evelyn asked quietly and immediately felt silent when she felt the withering looks from her companions on her. After that there followed silence again and all four realized how the sleep crawled in their bones.

* * *

"Hey Bill come here! See what I found!"

Awoken by the voice Maddie opened her eyes. All she could see was grass and shoes which seemed to belong to the voice. Behind her she heard Ann whisper in her sleep. It was something about Red Riding Hood and the Wolf.

"I hope for you that it's something good." Another voice answered. While the first had sound slightly amused and friendly the second sounded grumpy and not friendly at all.

"It is!" The first one answered and while he did Maddie tried to sit up. Nobody stopped her but when she looked up she realized why. The owner of the first voice had just pointed his weapon at her and nodded. "It's even awake now!" And as he said this the owner of the second voice appeared. The were about the same height but the first one had a smaller face and longer hair.

"That's what you called me for? Some women in uniforms sleeping behind bushes? Just shoot them." He said these words pretty loud and Maddie felt Ann moving behind her.

"Who is going to be shot?" She asked half asleep a lit her head. This few words made the men exchange a surprised glance. They didn't expect the women to speak English. They both didn't know what they expected them to talk in but it was definitely not English.

"Those two." Maddie heard Cat say and spotted her standing behind the men, with her brandished weapon. The Lieutenant looked serious about the words she said and Maddie had no doubt she would shoot them. She had always been the tough one. Thinking about Cat she hadn't realized that Ann had stood up and raised her hands in a comforting gesture. "Stay calm Cat. These men only to their job even if I'm quite sure that their superiors would be happier if they had some prisoners and not only dead bodies." Ann nodded at the men and signified Maddie to stand up as well.

"Well, Bill I guess we can take them with us as well. Just give us your weapons." Slowly the three of them handed them over and followed the man called Bill while the one called Luz followed them .

They walked through a camp and every now and then they heard phrases like "Nice capture, guys." or "This one looks beastly, you should stay away Joe!" but the women didn't say anything. When they were in front of the biggest tent Bill left them and came back with two other men.

"Captain Winters, Captain Nixon. These are the women." If Luz would have looked exactly he would have realized that Ann wanked only in surprise but he thought that she was preparing to get her weapon and held his weapon at her head.

"Don't shoot!" Two voices said synchronously. Both, Dick and Ann had recognized each other and the fact that one of them was going to get shot if they didn't react. "You can leave know. Both of you." He said with a nod to Luz and Bill and then turned to Ann looking at her in surprise.

"What are you doing here, Captain Gosen?" He said and realized right afterwards that he must have made a mistake with her name as the two women behind her started to smile. He looked at her name tag and tried it again. "What are you doing here Captain Goersen?"

"We found you last night because of the fire and", Ann started slowly but was interrupted by Caitlin, "You should be glad it was us and not the Germans who found you!" but she felt silent as soon as she saw Ann looking at her with anger. "Well, as I said we found you last night and watched you. Then we must have felt asleep and got caught by your two soldiers this morning. I have to admit we made some mistakes and I'm quite sure that we deserve nothing less than death as we are German women with weapons who observed you and could tell all the things we know somebody who wants you dead, Sir."

Captain Winters looked at her with surprise and than slowly shook his head. "First you two Captains tell us everything you know about everything and after that we decide what we are going to do. Sergeant Randleman please look at this woman while we question the other two."

"And so we saw the light. End of the story." Maddie finished the story Ann had begun thirty minutes ago. They were both standing at a table with a map on it and had shown every place they were talking about. Most of the time Ann had to do it because she was better with maps but Maddie started to assist her when she realized that her friends hand was shaking like a leaf.

She could feel the suspicious looks Captain Winters, Captain Nixon, Captain Speirs and Lieutenant Lipton gave them as they tried to explain everything. Standing those had already been hard when she was talking but know when everyone was quiet it was even harder.

"What happened to that letter you were talking about Captain Hegenstein? And to you fourth companion?" Lieutenant Lipton asked with a calming smile on his face. He seemed by far to be the nicest of all and was possibly the complete difference to Captain Speirs who stood next to him and looked at them as if he only wanted to kill them.

"Sir, we have honestly no idea what happened to Lieutenant Rosenthal but we know that she is only armed with a knife and some grenades. The letter is still in my pocket." Maddie answered and waited.

"Take it out and read it, Captain!" Captain Nixon ordered and waited. Slowly Maddie reached for the letter and started to read it out aloud.

"Dear Ann, Maddie, Cat and Evelyn,

we are done here and left you while you were in the forest. Your help is no longer needed, the Germans are coming this way. Maybe we'll meet again but I refuse to believe that you'll survive this war. You're only women, aren't you? Well, anyway, have a nice rest of life.

Sincerely,

Colonel Sebastian Wegenbruch"


	3. Suicide Squad

„What are we going to do with them?" Lew asked watching the three women standing in the distance. He was quite sure about the answers he was going to get. _'Shoot them' _Ron would say, _'We should talk to Sink' _Dick would respond and Lip would just stand there smiling as always.

"Honestly? I've got no idea." Dick replied and sighed. "What options do we have anyway? We could kill them because they are German and know things they are not supposed to know. We could chase them away but who knows what they are going to do without our support. They could easily switch the sides. And of course we could let them stay. I'm sure this would be the choice they would be most happy about but I don't know what's the best for Easy and the whole war. What do you think Lew?"

Lew was surprised that Dick didn't mention going to Sink with one word. Normally, he wouldn't make this choice on his own because he wasn't allowed to but maybe one of these woman had an influence on him which made him forget his principles.

"I don't know. I mean, I don't think that shooting them is the right solution and chasing them away could kill us easier than anything else. But do you think it's save to let them stay? We barely know them maybe they're going to kill some of us while we turn our backs on them. Can we really trust them?"

Again Dick sighed but this time he accompanied it with a shake of his head. "I guess so. I mean they helped us with the town and didn't kill me in the forest." All of a sudden Dick became silent and Lew knew why. Neither Ron nor Lip knew about the whole forest thing that happened the day before. "Before you ask, I met them in the forest yesterday, again. They could have easily killed me, they didn't. They gave me the plans I brought with me and those plans could have been wrong, they weren't. Yes, I trust them. I think they'll rather kill themselves than help the Germans."

Ron and Lip looked at Dick with something like surprise on their faces but didn't say anything. Then there was only silence. "So it is decided? They are going to stay with us?" Ron asked and Dick nodded. "We're not telling Sink that they're German. They're French soldiers." "Do the French have female soldiers?" Lip asked in surprise. "I don't know but that doesn't matter anyway. Sink thinks the French are sane so he won't question anything. If he asks anyway we'll make something up."

With those words Dick started walking towards the women and Lew saw how surprised they were when he informed them about their decision. He also saw that the Lieutenant nearly punched him in the face and could only been restrained by the two other women. "Oh Dick." Lew murmured and got to his best friends help. "I'm sorry to interrupt this little chat but we still haven't decided where you sleep and also I was wondering about your clothing as your uniforms after all are neither French nor American." With a slight pushing of Dick he brought his friend out of the punching zone and tried to smile.

Lew saw Captain Goersen smile about his movement and immediately straightened himself. He was not going to embarrass himself in front of her. He was a Captain as well as she was and she shouldn't think anything else about him. "Don't worry Captain Nixon. I can totally understand that you're worried about your friend. I would be worried about him as well if someone would try to punch him." While Dick got as red as a beetroot Lew couldn't help smiling. She was good but it was a little bit horrifying that she knew so well what he thought.

"I would suggest you give us a couple of your uniforms and some place with a roof. And for the safeness of your conscience I guess it should be an other roof than the one your men have above their head." Lew nodded and turned to Dick. "When you've finished starring Dick could you please go and find this roof Captain Goersen is talking about? I'm going to get the uniforms and while doing this I'll send someone to look for Lieutenant Rosenthal. I guess it wouldn't be bad if we would find her soon." Automatically, Dick nodded and headed towards some barracks. "You stay here. Don't move and don't talk to anyone till we told the Company what's going to happen." The three women nodded and so Lew turned away.

On his way to the stock he met Compton and Randleman and told them to look for a short, blonde woman named Evelyn Rosenthal which might be somewhere around the camp. Both nodded and disappeared. After Lew had gotten three uniforms he brought them to the women.

"You can change later when Dick has found a shelter for you." Lew said and turned around but felt a hand on his shoulder holding him back. "Thank you, Captain Nixon." Lew turned around trying to respond something meaningful but he had no idea what to say. He just stood there looking into Anns eyes and the world felt silent for a moment.

"So, thank you Captain Nixon, Captain Winters already showed us where we could stay." Captain Hegenstein interrupted and it took Lew a moment to nod. "Yes, of course. We'll announce this whole thing later." Lew turned around and left the women but Anns face was still in his mind.

* * *

"Captain Goersen, Captain Hegenstein, Lieutenant van Veden and Lieutenant Rosenthal are going to stay with us, till there are any other orders. Consequently, they are the superiors from nearly all of you. Treat them like that." After that Lew applied his attention to the new members of the Easy Company. "As we're at the same rank or at least nearly, I guess it wouldn't be bad if we would know each other first names as well. Lewis Nixon." He said and smiled at the women. While the two Captains looked pretty happy about the whole thing the Lieutenant stood there with a grumpy face. She reminded Lew a little bit of Guarnere.

"Ann Goersen." "Madeleine Hegenstein." "Caitlin van Veden." The three women introduced themselves. The four of them were going to the table where the some of the officers were sitting and while they introduced each other again Lew caught himself starring at Ann.

"How does it come that we never heard about your organization? And how did it happen that you're in it?" Ron asked without any shame and gave them a challenging look but this look didn't do anything to the women as far as Lew could see. "Well, you know it's an underground organization. It's not planned that anyone knows about it. And because of your other question. We all have our reason to fight against the Nazis, don't we? Some of us were forced to others, well, others do it for fun. Does it really matter, why we are here?" Lew realized that Ann tried to avoid answering this question but he had of course no idea why.

"What about you, Captain Hegenstein? Would you be so kind and answer me why you're here?" Madeleine chuckled and answered slowly. "I'm here because we have to fight against the Nazis." Ron looked at the two women with anger and turned away. Lew started to chuckle. "What's so funny, Captain Nixon." Ann asked in surprise and viewed suspiciously. "Please, call me Lew." "What's so funny, Lew?" Ann asked again and enhanced his name as strongly as possible. "It's nothing."

The whole table was silent till Buck Compton came at the table smiling. "We found her." And from behind him emerged another woman. She was short, blonde and smiled although she looked like a total mess. "You have to be Lieutenant Rosenthal. I'm Captain Nixon. I'm glad the men found you." "Me, too."

* * *

"You really should have been there, Dick." Lew said looking at his best friend worried. "What's wrong?" Dick didn't answer, he just lay on his bed starring at the ceiling. "God, Dick, what's wrong with you? You haven't said anything till you told the women that they could stay." There was still silence.

"What do you think is going to happen next?" Dick sat up and asked. Lew wasn't sure whether it was pure imagination or not but his friend looked really bad. "Maybe we're going back to England, maybe we're going to the next town to fight the next combat. Who knows. By the way Dick you look horrible." His friend smiled and laid down again."That's exactly what I wanted to her. I look horrible." They talked about the plans the army might have and didn't realize a person standing in the entrance.

"Captain Nixon, Captain Winters I apologize for my interruption but Captain Speirs wants to see you." Ann said looking at them in perfect military fashion. Dick instantly and so it was on Lew to answer. "It's really not your job Captain Goersen to be the legman for Speirs. He could have sent somebody else or come by himself." Ann nodded and turned around. As she was leaving Lew and Dick could hear her murmur. "But it was a great pleasure to see you two again."

"What do you think does he want?" Lew asked Dick but his friend was already leaving the barrack. So the black haired guy hurried after the ginger one.

Speirs was waiting for them with plans unfurled all over the table. But before he could say anything Lew started a long speech about Ann not being his servant and killing him if he didn't control his superiority complexes. Speirs was silent all the time he talked but started smiling evilly as soon as Lew stopped. "I guess I touched a raw nerve. Well, just for your notice she volunteered to do it. I did neither force her nor did I do anything else. And now as you have calmed down back to the real work. We are supposed to capture this town there afterwards we're probably going to England for a short time. They say there are about fifty Germans in there but nobody is sure. Now Captain Winters how are we going to do it?"

Dick looked at the plans and started to explain while showing every point he was talking about on the map. "We're going with Dog-Company and Easy-Company. Fox-Company stays behind. Dog takes this way, Easy this one." And so Dick explained everything till it was all clear to Ron and Lew. Again they didn't notice Ann standing in the entrance.

"Your plan is great Captain Winters I'd take my hat off to you if I would have on. There's just a little problem. We know they've snipers there, there and there. Probably one more in this building. Also there are definitely two MGs hidden there and there. If we would do it after your plan everyone would be dead before even stepping into the town." Dick nodded and waited for her to continue.

"All we need to change is the beginning. We place two snipers in the forest and give the Germans a target. While they shoot it, our snipers kill their snipers, a second group kills the MGs, I would suggest with hand grenades."

"What do you mean with target?" Lew asked looking at her suspiciously. "Well, something living. The best would of course be a human being." She said calmly while the men started to breath a bit more heavy. "You know that we don't have a suicide squad, don't you?" Dick asked and looked at her with distrustfulness. Ann opened her mouth and closed it again. She looked a little bit like a fish Lew thought to himself. Her facial expression changed from surprise to anger and then to recognition. "I'm sorry Captain Winters I forgot that we are here now. Our whole organization was a suicide squad we never bothered to think about the life of the people. You are right. This is not a suicide squad and I shouldn't treat it like it was one. I apology for my mistake." With those words she stepped back and left the barrack. The men looked after her in surprise.

"Well, but we still have to change our plans. If she's right about the snipers and the MGs and I have no doubt she is we can't do it like that. But her way isn't an option either because I really don't want to let somebody die just because this might help us kill the Krauts." And so the plan was changed again.

After they had done their work Lew and Dick went to their barrack again. The only thing they could do now was waiting. "You know this is going to bring is trouble, don't you? If they are really from a suicide squad we can't trust them with anything. They might get themselves killed before anyone can prevent it and they won't even feel sorry because that's what they were trained for. Doing stupid things, saving the world and dying while doing it."

At was the same again. Dick was lying on his bed starring at the ceiling while Lew tried to talk to him. The only difference was that this time Dick answered. "We just have to keep them away from any possibility to kill themselves. And they should stay away from Rons command. I trust him to use their attitude for a dangerous maneuver. It's his choice if he brings himself in a dangerous position but this doesn't mean that he can take others with him."

Lew laid himself down as well and listened to the wind outside. "Am I right Lew when I say that you haven't drunk anything since the women are here?" Dick asked and in his head Lew could see him smile. "Yes, you're. Didn't feel like it. Don't ask me why." "I don't have to."

* * *

The next morning was the morning of the attack. The men were excited as they were sure that they would easily capture the town and it was clear that they'd go back to England for a break after doing so. And it all went surprisingly well what was very unusual for Easy-Company. At the end Lew found himself in building together with Ann which was standing at the window with her K98 waiting. Suddenly he heard her swear and then realized that she gave him her sniper rifle and was leaving the house again.

Lew took her place and saw what had happened to make her curse. Right in the middle of the place were two men in American uniform lying. They both seemed to be alive but the question was how long. Lew saw Ann leaving the building through the front door running directly to the two lying bodies and now he even had an idea who it was. I hoped he were wrong but was sure that he wasn't. Lying down there like dead were Dick and Lip. The whole place had looked safe and so they had passed it but there must have been a sniper left. And now Ann was down there to. The perfect target for this sniper.

As he watched her running he saw two other figures heading in the same direction but I were neither Madeleine nor Caitlin as he had expected it were Ron and to his even bigger surprise Webster. The three of them firstly grabbed Dick but instead of bringing him to the doc they only laid him down behind a stack of wood. Then they returned to Lip and carried him in a building were Doc was already waiting for them. Till this happened not one shot was fired at them probably because the Germans were as surprised as everybody else. Lew could see all three of them discuss about what to do next and then sprinting to the place Dick was lying. The two men grabbed him while Ann seemed to work as a human shield. Surprisingly, none of them were hit by the bullets the Germans were firing now.

Lew could finally spot the sniper and only fired one shot. The Kraut fell immediately. But this had distracted him from the rescue operation which was going on down there. When he looked down again he saw Ann lying there in her own blood.


	4. Bad habits

Maddie stood in the door frame and watched Ann lying in the hospital bed. She had stood there for several hours now without any movement. She had just stood there and had waited. She didn't even knew what she was waiting for. Maybe a miracle although no miracle was needed. Ann hadn't been injured severely. The sniper only got her shoulder. Nothing that would kill anybody. Nothing to worry about. The only thing to worry about was the fact that she hadn't woken up since she were shot. Several people visited her. Maddie had seen them all come and go. Winters, Nixon, Speirs, Lipton, Webster and of course Evelyn and Caitlin. She understood why most of them had visited her. She saved Winters' and Liptons lives, Evelyn and Catlin were her friends, Nixon had come with Winters and Speirs just had the really annoying habit of appearing whenever you didn't expect him. The only thing she couldn't understand was Websters appearance. She had seen him help her and Speirs with saving the two officers but this didn't explain anything.

"Has anything changed?" Winters asked from behind her. "No. Nothing. She did neither move nor anything else." Maddie didn't even turn around to look him in the eyes. She just continued starring at the bed. "Maybe you should get some sleep. The doctors told me you're standing here since you were allowed to." Maddie just shrugged her shoulders. "Sleep is overrated." And so the two of them only stood there in silence.

"Lieutenant Rosenthal told me you studied medicine. You should known best how important sleeping is for a healthy body." Winters tried to convince her. She had to talk about this with Evelyn later before anybody else received information they were not supposed to receive. "I can take care of myself, thanks Captain." But Maddie still turned around and left.

On her way outside she saw several wounded soldiers but she knew none of them. The sun was shining and the birds singing as she walked to the place were she and the other women lived. England was a really nice country after all even if Maddie had never thought so. On her way she saw Cat having fun with some men of the Easy-Company.

Caitlin saw Maddie pass by in the distance looking sad and tired. "And this stupid motherfucker just ran directly into my MG. He looked at me in surprise, then he was dead." She finished her story from a combat they had fought with the organization. "You're kidding me, aren't you?" Bill asked and shook his head. "Hell no. I've got no idea how somebody can be so stupid but he was. But believe me I've met a lot of stupid Krauts. One throw himself directly in front of our car." She smiled as she remembered this combat. Everything had been so easy.

"But this happened several times to us. We started to be really glad whenever we actually shot one and didn't run them over. Started to become a tradition." "Well, Easy-Company gets shot in the ass." Bill explained and the men started laughing. He was by far the soldier Cat liked most just because he was how he was. From the narrations she had heard he was one of the toughest soldiers in the Company and he didn't look bad either.

"Oh fuck, I promised to help Evelyn. Well, see ya guys." Caitlin turned around and started running towards their shelter. There she met Maddie who left the house looking angry and shortly afterwards Evelyn sitting on her bed. "What's wrong with Maddie?" Cat asked sitting down on the other bed. "Well, I told Winters that she studied medicine and he confronted her with it and now she is mad at me because no one was supposed to know. Is there a reason for this? That we swear an oath or something like that about not telling anybody about our former lives? I mean why shouldn't they know that she studied medicine? That's useful, isn't it?" Cat sighed and laid herself down. "You know how she is. She is a control freak and when things don't go the way she planned them to go she just freaks out."

Cat waited a few minutes for Evelyn to respond but the other woman didn't say anything. "Did she say anything about Ann?" Eve shook her head. "Did you tell Winters anything else about us? Why we are where we are? Why we are who we are?" The other one shook her head again.

"Good." And so they sat in silence. Silence was something they had all get used to. Silence had become their friend. Silence was nothing to be afraid of.

Evelyn had watched Cat falling asleep. She was glad her friend had been able to do so. She hadn't slept since they had seen the Easy-Company for the first time. All the things just had been to confusing and stressing. Sometimes Evelyn wondered why she did this to herself. Why she had started fighting for the right things and stopped waiting. Usually, she wasn't the type for stuff like that. Cat always had been and would always be. She really admired her friend for being who she was and refusing to be somebody else just to please people.

Slowly, Evelyn stood up and left the room, left the house, left her friend behind. She didn't now were to go as she had no friends around. Of course she knew Ann and Maddie now for a long time but this didn't mean anything. They fought for the same thing but their reasons were completely different. She wandered around completely in thoughts not aware of where she was going or who she passed.

"Lieutenant Rosenthal you're alright?" A voice from behind her asked. Slowly, she turned around. Slowly, would probably be the word which described her best. Everything she did was slow. Not because she wanted it to be so it just was the way the war had changed her. Doing everything slow and careful because it might be the last thing you did before dying. The voice belonged to Eugene Roe. The Doc you barely saw when you weren't hurt.

"What? Yes, yes, I'm alright." She wanted to go away but Roe held her back. "You've passed me five times now it didn't even notice me. I do not think that you're alright. When did you sleep the last time?" Evelyn shook her head in confusing nearly loosing her balance. "Go to bed, there's no reason to be awake. We are safe and in the moment there's nothing to worry about." As Eve still didn't move Eugene just took her by her shoulders and guided her back to the house she were staying at. He helped her to lay down and then left again. Left the two women sleeping. Left them dreaming dreams about freedom, peace and things he couldn't imagine.

* * *

"Give me one reason for not killing you in the next two minutes!" "Well, I just survived?" "A real reason!" "God, I don't know. If you really need a reason think about one!" "I'm not going to think for you!" "Then kill me!" "I can't!" "You don't say!"

Awoken by the loud voices Evelyn opened her eyes but the first thing she actually saw was a wall. But a wall was definitely not the source of this horrible yelling next to her.

"Why did you do this shit? Didn't we all agree about not killing us in the next two weeks?" "I just had to. I mean I had to." "You had to? I don't see any reason that you had to do this. There were so many other people which could have" "But nobody did move." "Since when are you such a martyr?" "I'm not!" "It seems so to me!"

By now Evelyn had realized that the voices belonged to Cat and Ann which seemed to be in a desperate fight about something Ann had done and Eve was quite sure that this thing was saving the asses of the two American officers.

"Why are you so angry about it? I did something good, didn't I?" Ann asked, her voice louder than Evelyn had ever heard before. The blonde woman still hadn't turned around as she didn't want the others to realize that she was awaken but she could imagine what she would see if she turned around. The Lieutenant would stand there with her arms folded looking at the Captain with an angry look. The Captain herself would stand there as far away as possible probably leaning against the wall and would always lift her hands in defensive movements.

"Why do you risk your life for them? There is no reason for so much stupidity. It's not your job to save the lives from some idiots which are to stupid to be soldiers." Cat snorted and Eve could hear that she started to walk through the whole room. "They would be dead now if I wouldn't have helped them." "Wrong. They would be totally safe. You might have forgotten it but Speirs and Webster also came to save their lives."

Evelyn couldn't wait any longer. As fast as she turned around the other one felt silent. "Did we wake you up?" Ann asked apologetically. "Oh, no. I woke up by myself. I mean your voices were probably loud enough that everyone in the distance of 50 miles could hear you but no, no you didn't wake me up." Evelyn said sarcastically which made Ann and Cat look at her in surprise. The blonde woman nearly felt proud about herself for making them shut up but the silence didn't last long. Cats facial expression changed from surprise to anger and again she started shouting at Ann.

"You see what you did? You made Eve use sarcasm and believe me this is really bad." As Evelyn thought Ann lifted her hands in defense as she started to talk calmer than she did before. "You cannot blame me for everything that happens, okay? I might have made a mistake with saving Winters and Lipton. Yes, probably it was a big mistake. But you cannot blame me for anything else. We both shouted, didn't we? Maybe you are the reason because she used sarcasm." Then Ann turned around and left the room.

"Where are you going? We are not done with this conversation!" Cat shouted but the only answer she received was a "Shut up!" and the slam of the front door. Slowly, Evelyn sat herself up and looked at Cat reproachfully. "Was this really necessary?" Cat didn't say anything but her face spoke volumes. There was anger, regret and maybe, Eve wasn't sure about that, pain.

"Do you think it was the right thing to do? To save those men?" Cat asked and laid down on her bed. "I don't know. Probably. Maybe. Maybe not. Nobody could be sure about the fact that somebody would go there for their rescue right? But also nobody said that she had to be the one who did it." Cat sighed and nodded. And so the two stayed there. Both dwelling on their thoughts.

* * *

After Ann had left the house in anger she had no idea where to go. The whole time she had been so certain about the whole saving thing but now she started to think over everything. Maybe Cat was right and she was just stupid. Nobody had forced her to save the men and she had had no duty to do so. She did it because she thought it was the right solution but what was right about risking your own life for the lives of two men you barely knew when you couldn't even be sure about the fact that they would survive it.

Ann met many people on her way to nowhere but she didn't talk to anyone. Some of them tried to congratulate her but she wasn't even sure if she did deserve those congratulations. There was nothing heroic in being stupid. Bravery was probably the kindest word for stupidity.

She wandered through the streets, borne by her thoughts. "Ann?" She turned around in surprise. She did not expect to hear Winters voice calling after her. "Yes, Captain Winters?" He had finally reached her and seemed no unsure what to do. "You'll never start to call us by our first names, right?" "Yes, but that was surely not your real request. Or at least I hope so." Ann answered and lifted her eyebrows waiting. "That's true. Actually, I only wanted to tell you that Colonel Sink wants to talk with you about the way forward." He seemed to want to say something else but kept quite. "Anything else, Captain?" Ann asked but he just shook his head. They nodded at each other and both headed in their original directions again. On her way Ann walked past Maddie but neither of them realized it.

Maddie had spend the last hours sitting on a bench smoking as much as she never did before. That was a really bad habit she had adopted by the soldiers she had worked with but it was also very calming. Ann always wrinkled her nose when she saw Maddie smoking but she really didn't care. Nobody could be as perfect as Ann which did neither drink nor smoke. Sometimes Maddie asked herself how Ann could have so much self-control but then she remembered that she really didn't care. Actually, Maddie had stopped caring about many things. The only thing she did really care about was the world she would leave behind for the next generation. Ann had laughed about this phrasing but Maddie really didn't care.

"Do you have one for me, too?" Speirs asked suddenly standing next to her. Maddie handed him a cigarette and he sat down on the bench. They sat there in silence waiting for the other one to say something. "Tell your friend she should let the big boys do the real work the next time." He said as he left and both knew that this wasn't everything he wanted to say.

"Do you have one for me, too?" When she looked up this time Guarnere stood in front of her. "Do I look like a fucking cigarette machine?" Maddie asked aggressively but handed him one anyway. "Whoa, what's wrong?" He said down next to her as well. "Nothing. Anything else?" "No." And so Guarnere left her, too. Maddie was totally aware of the fact that it wasn't the best way to integrate in a group by behaving like this but she still didn't care. Because caring was the thing she stopped to do.

Bill has wandered around smoking the cigarette the slightly aggressive Captain had given him. All of those women had the horrible habit of being in a bad mood whenever he tried to talk to them. "Women." He murmured as he passed a soldier leaning against the wall. ""Did you say something, Sergeant?" Exactly this soldier asked and Bill realized that it had been Lieutenant van Veden who had stood there. "No Lieutenant absolutely nothing." "I felt like you said 'women' with a really unfortunate emphasis." The Lieutenant smiled and handed him a new cigarette. He hadn't even realized his one was finished. He took it and used this time to think about an proper answer.

"Don't even try it Bill, there's no way out of this. Well, of course if you would offer me something to drink we could talk about this." Bill started to smile but stopped as soon as the Lieutenant started laughing. "Bill, whatever you're thinking about. Stop it and tell were I can find something to drink." Bill nodded and showed the Lieutenant to follow him. "I didn't know that you drink, Lieutenant van Veden." "First of all stop calling me Lieutenant Bill it's Caitlin or Cat or whatever the fuck you want. And secondly, there are many things you don't know and you should be fucking glad about this."

Since Bill had left her many soldiers had come and had asked for a cigarette. Maddie gave them all one but no one stayed. "Do you have one for me, too?" The next one asked but this time she had to shook her head. "Sorry." The soldier said down anyway but kept quite. "Well, maybe I weren't clear. I don't have anymore. Ask somebody else." "I don't smoke, anyway." Now, Maddie looked up as it was really surprising when somebody in the Army didn't smoke and she was even more surprised when she realized that it was Ann she had talked to the whole time.

"I really fucked it up, didn't I?" Maddie just nodded and so they sat there. Maddie smoking, Ann doing nothing. When Evelyn appeared they just moved together a little bit and they did the same when Bill and Cat sat down as well. All five of them were silent till Speirs broke the silence.

"What do you think is the problem? War or the people who fight it?" Nobody answered and nobody wondered about the fact where he came from. There are things you just get used to and that's something good when you fight a war. These small things that do not change no matter if the world is tearing apart or not.


	5. Trousers

**The Poem Ann and Web are reciting is Ulysses by the great Lord**** Alfred**** Tennyson.**

"Ann." "Nah..." "Ann!" "Nah..." "Open your eyes now! Look at me! Tell me!" Tardily Ann opened her eyes and looked directly in the very angry face of Cat. "What do you want to get explained?" The Captain asked and sat up in her bed. "Why did you promise the guys that we would accompany them to this stupid dance that is happening this evening. Bill just told me!" Confused Ann shook her head and answered calmly. "I didn't promise them anything. We didn't even talk about this. To say the truth till now I didn't even now about this." Cat laughed sarcastic and pulled Ann up. "You are now going to explain this to Eve. You may remember that her husband died just a few months ago. I'm sure she'll be very happy about the date she has tonight."

"What if she was?" Both were surprised by the voice of Eve. "Cat let her go, she didn't do anything wrong. It was me who promised the guys to accompany them. Do you really think that Ann would ever have such an idea?" Cat stepped backwards looking at the others. "It was your idea? Seriously? What about your husband? What about everything that happened?" "It's time to move on Cat. We can't stay who we are forever. That's not how living works." Ann could see that Evelyn was close to tears. "You know, sometimes we have to leave behind what held us in the past. But leaving behind does not mean forgetting, it means living." With those words Evelyn left them. Cat and Ann just stood there in silence. Still starring at the point where she had stood just a few seconds ago.

"Do you think she's right? I mean, about leaving the past behind and all this stuff. Is that really the meaning behind living? To remember but not to hold on?" Ann asked and waited for Cat to respond but these just slapped the Captain on the back of the head and murmured "You're an complete idiot." while leaving the room. Ann felt the urge to yell after her to ask her why but she kept quiet knowing that this would probably just cause her more trouble.

"How does it happen that I always see people leaving this place looking angry? Has it something to do with the furniture or are it the persons who live inside of it?" Webster had entered the room quietly and was now looking at Ann expectantly.

"One equal temper of heroic hearts,

Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."

The women responded and started to smile. Webster nodded at her in a appreciative way, thought for a moment and answered then

"Come my friends,

'Tis not to late to seek a newer world...

for my purpose holds

To sail beyond the sunset..."

And so they left the room, just reciting poetry which came to their minds and not thinking about it at all. Because no matter what happens your thoughts still can go wherever you let them go. There's no fence around them as long as you don't build one.

Maddie was leaning against a tree when she saw Web and Ann leave the house both looking happy. She could understand that they liked each other as they both had fallen in love with words. Maddie had never understood that part of Ann, this part which loved words and thought that those could change everything. Words were only letters, put in a certain order, so that people could interact with each other without using sign language and although it was made to communicate still no nation understood the other one because they all had different languages. No, for Maddie there was no need to love words and as long as you could use them in the right way everything was good.

She had seen Evelyn and Cat leave the house and had already heard what one of the Lieutenants had promised the men. That they would accompany them to this dance which was supposed to happen this evening. Maddie was sure that she would not go because...well, there was no because.

"Captain Hegenstein?" A voice behind her asked. She tried to guess who it belonged to but she just wasn't able to. Ann still made fun of her for not being able to differentiate a female voice from a male voice. Maybe she should try smelling instead, she was kind of good at smelling. But even if she would knew the smell that would not help her with the names. That was another problem, the names. How was this red-haired guy called again? Mallack? Maverick? No, it was something else. Something more 'meaningful'...It was...

"Captain Hegenstein?" The voice asked again. Maddie had totally forgotten that there was someone standing behind her. "Malarkey!" She shouted finally knowing what name that ginger soldier had. "No, my name is Powers, ma'am. I'm here to tell you that Sink wants to see you." "What? I mean. I know that you're not Malarkey, Sergeant. Thank you. Do you know were I can find him?" Powers pointed to a house just a few meters away. "Any idea what he wants, Powers?" "Sorry, ma'am I've got no idea." "Stop looking so afraid. Then you can go." While Powers nodded and disappeared, Maddie started to head towards the house. She didn't knew what she was supposed to expect but if Sink wanted to talk to her and not to Ann it had to be something very important or strange or...It could be about anything.

"Captain Hegenstein." She were greeted by Captain Winters, Captain Nixon, Captain Speirs and Colonel Sink. The last one started to talk as soon as they had all sat down. "We're going back on the continent very soon. The plan is that we move out to the Netherlands in 3 days. Am I right in assuming that you are not trained paratroopers, Captain Hegenstein?" "Yes, Sir!" "This means that we have to think about something else for you. Is it necessary for you to continue fighting the war?" "Yes, Sir!" "If I would transfer you anywhere would this still be your answer?" There was a short moment of silence in the room. It seemed like nobody even breathed. Maddie needed this moment to think. No matter what she would answer it could ruin everything. "Yes, Sir!" "Well, but I don't want to. You're going to follow them into the Netherlands but it will take a little bit longer with you, that means that you leave us tomorrow. And Captain Hegenstein, I know that you're not happy about the arrangements for tonight but you're going to enjoy it. Do not contract me, this is an order!" Maddie waited for the permission to leave and as soon as she was allowed to she left the house.

Evelyn and Cat were now sitting in on the grass between them some Gin. Neither Eve nor Caitlin could remember were they had found it but it still was alcohol and alcohol was the best solution to forget things. "You know alcohol is no solution?" Eve asked and Cat chuckled. "Well, chemically seen, it is." "Your jokes are horrible." "I know."

"So we're going out tonight with the guys. Who's coming with us?" Cat asked and took a sip of the Gin. "I don't know. Well, Bill, Luz, Babe, Buck and Bull said that they would definitely come with us. Web and Roe weren't quite sure and I didn't speak to the rest but I guess in the end all of them will be there." "Probably."

"Can I ask you something, Cat?" Eve asked avoiding to look at her friend directly. "Sure." "It's pretty stupid to ask this question while we're fighting a war, please don't judge. I mean, it's still a 'public' event isn't it and I mean. We can't go in our uniforms, can't we?" Cat chuckled again, stood up and clasped Eves arm. "I've organized something."

The two of them were going back to the house and back in their room, Cat reached under her bed and pulled out a bag. She laid it on the blanket, opened it and smiled at Evelyn. "I talked to some women living nearby and they gave me something. I already talked to Sink, he was fine with it." In the bag were two dresses, one costume and a pair of trousers and a blouse. "This one should fit you." Cat pointed at one of the dresses which was knee-length and mat blue. "I'm going to take the other one, Maddie gets the costume and Ann the trousers." The second dress was kind of beige and also knee-length, the costume was blue as well and the trousers just looked like a pair of trousers. "I know that Ann hates dresses, so I asked a women whether she could whip a pair of trousers and a shirt from her husband. She told me that her husband died just a few weeks ago on the continent, I evinced my pity, gave her some money and she did it for me." Evelyn looked at the clothing and didn't even hear what her friend said. "You're amazing." "I know."

While Evelyn and Cat were looking at the clothes, Ann and Web were wandered through nearly the whole city. They had talked about their universities , their teachers and about the lack of knowledge of many of their friends about Literature and other things they thought were important.

"And you've really studied physics and not literature?" Web asked as they were passing some soldiers which were playing cards. "Well, yes. I guess it's really hard to understand but I love the fact that you explain nearly everything with physics but at the same time I just want to walk around writing poems about the beauties of nature." Ann shrugged her shoulders and pointed at an apple tree. "I could explain you know how fast and why this apple is going to fall to earth but I could also just talk about the fact that everything is supposed to leave his past to become an individual." Web nodded and they continued walking in silence.

"You know, sometimes I wish that I hadn't studied at all or at least not physics." Web looked at her in surprise since she talked about her love for physics just a few minutes ago. "Why?" He could see that it took Ann a lot of work to get herself act together. "I've done some really big shit." Then she felt silent and Web didn't want to ask her, what she had done. He didn't want to change his opinion about her and what he didn't knew couldn't bother him.

* * *

"You know that I hate all of you, right?" Ann asked the other three women while she waited for them. "We know." Cat answered finally finding the shoe she was looking for. "I'm not happy about it either, Ann." Maddie responded and forced to smile. It had taken Evelyn and Caitlin very long to convince Maddie and Ann that they should come with them and it would have taken even longer if Maddie wouldn't have confessed that Sink had ordered them to go there. Now, they were all wearing the stuff Cat had organized them and were all more or less happy about it. Ann didn't understand why she had to change from her uniform into trousers as it was nearly the same but after a long discussion she had finally done it. It has been a big surprise for Evelyn and Cat that Maddie didn't complain about the costume at all. Maybe there was still something female inside of her.

"Are you ready?" Ann asked and when the other three nodded they left the house. To their surprise there were two Jeeps waiting outside. "We got them when we said that we would escort some ladies." Bill answered their questioning looks. He was sitting in the drivers seat of the first car next to him Luz. While Cat and Eve climbed into this one, Maddie and Ann sat down behind Web and Babe. In the second Jeep nobody talked, in the first one the conversation was running as hell.

When they reached their destination the men helped the women out of the Jeep or at least tried to. Neither Maddie nor Ann took the hands which were offered them they just smiled trough gritted teeth and followed the others inside. It was a barn from the outside but inside there was music playing, they served alcohol and the people all looked happy. Not only soldiers were there but also civilians mostly women which soothed the evening for all these lonely men.

Ann and Maddie sat down at a table, not talking to each other, both deep in thoughts. Evelyn and Caitlin immediately started to dance with Bill and Luz but changed their partners several times. "Do you want to dance?" Shifty Powers asked Maddie, the woman nodded in response and so Ann was left alone at the table. She wouldn't say that she hated dancing but she had always hated her partners which had nearly the same result. Now she was watching the other three which all seemed pretty happy about their partners. Cat had danced several times with Bill and always seemed unhappy when someone else wanted to dance with her but Bill had nearly the same facial expression on his face when he was forced to let her go. Evelyn had changed the partner multiple times as well but now she seemed to stick with Eugene Roe, the doctor and to Anns surprise he looked happy. She had never seen him look happy but this smile on his face told her everything she needed to know. Maddie was still dancing with Shifty Powers and although Ann didn't whether they had met before or not but both seemed to be pleased about the presence of the other one.

"We're leaving tomorrow." Cat said to Bill while they were dancing. First he looked at her in surprise than his facial expression changed to amusement. "You're really good in destroying moments, aren't you?" He asked and pulled her a little bit closer. "Yeh, but that's only one of my two big mistakes." She said happy about his movement. "What's the second one?" "I'm not funny." Bill started to laugh and when a slow song began he kissed her.

"You look better now." Roe whispered into Eves ear while they were dancing closely. She smiled and rested her head on his shoulder. "Anything else you want to tell me?" "You look beautiful." Evelyn didn't expect Eugene to do anything which might underline his words and so she just kissed him on the cheek and smiled when he blushed.

"You're a great dancer." Shifty said and grinned at Maddie. She looked really nice in those more female clothes and her whole presence was much more relaxed than it had ever been when he had seen her. She seemed to really enjoy dancing and so did he. "Is anyone of the officers coming tonight?" Maddie asked him while she scanned the room with her look. Shifty started to worry whether she would prefer one of them to dance with her but she destroyed those fears when she added "I'm not asking because of me, I'm asking because of Ann." Shifty nodded and looked at the best friend of his dancing partner. "Captain Nixon said that he would try to come but I'm not sure whether he was serious or not." Maddie nodded and they continued dancing.

"Would you like something to drink?" Nix asked Ann while he said down next to her. She looked at him with sad eyes and smiled. "You know the answer." "It was worth a try." Nix answered and took a sip of his VAT 69. "Have you sat here the whole time?" Ann nodded and continued starring at the dance floor. "Would you like to dance?" This time she shook her head and Nix had some time to look at the woman sitting next to him. She was the only one of the women who was still wearing trousers and they looked as well as her blouse like they had belonged to a man once. "Stop starring at my clothing Lewis. If you want to look at something female you have to move your head just a little bit. There are dozens of women on the dance floor you could undress with your look." Ann snapped at him and looked away again as soon as her eyes met his.

"What if I don't want to?" Nix asked and laid his hand on her shoulder. "What if I neither want to look at another woman nor undress you with my look? What if I just wanted to dance with you?" Ann panted and continued to look away. "Oh come on Ann. What's your problem?" Ann stood up in rage and started to shout at him. "What my problem is? My problem is that we're fighting a war! A motherfucking war! Do you know what that means? That means that thousands of innocent people are going to die! Who am I kidding? Millions! Millions of people will loose their lives because some idiot thought that he could rule the world. And what are we doing? We celebrate like there was something to celebrate! There is nothing to celebrate! Nothing! But you know what the biggest problem is? That I am the reason that so many more will die! I am the reason for something that will change living for ever and I am not proud of it. That is my problem!"

In the meantime everything and everyone had become quiet and looked at Ann but the Captain didn't care at all she just left the barn and disappeared in the dark outside. It took Nix some time to react but after he had realized what just had happened he followed her in hope to catch her before she did anything stupid. After the two Captains had disappeared the music started to play again and the conversations started again.

Web had watched Ann the whole time since arrival. He had seen how sad she had looked and that Captain Nixon didn't do anything to offend her. And of course he had seen how she had shouted at the dark-haired soldier and how she had left the barn. But his problem was not what he had seen but what he had heard. _I am the reason that so many more will die! _ She had shouted. And now he understood what she had been talking about when she said that she sometimes wished that she would have never studied.

Maddie had not realized that her best friend had something like a mental breakdown because she and Shifty had already left the barn, Cat just ignored her because she didn't want to deal with the shit of the Captain anymore and Eve didn't care about Ann anyway.


	6. Punch me

Silence. Darkness. Silence, darkness and the sound of raindrops. That was everything Maddie realized when she opened her eyes. She did neither know where she was nor why she was there but it was warm. That was something. After lying there for a while she realized that she wasn't alone. Someone was lying next to her, still sleeping as it seemed. The breathing of this someone was slow and peaceful. Slow, peaceful and male. Carefully, Maddie turned her head and checked whether she was right or not. She was. Lying next to her was Shifty. Shifty Powers, the best sniper you could imagine. But he didn't seem very dangerous in the moment, in the moment he seemed just young. Young and innocent.

Slowly, Maddie got up and looked for her clothing. She found it all spread in the whole room except for one shoe. "You're shoe is lying in the other corner." Shifty murmured drowsy when he sat up. Maddie nodded, found the corpus delicti, dressed herself completely and headed towards the door. "I've got to catch a flight." She whispered with apology on her face and left the room and shortly afterwards the house. Shifty laid down again and continued sleeping.

As Maddie had thought it was raining outside. The sun had barely risen and the streets were empty. Maddie had no idea were she was but it seemed like she wasn't the only one since there were many other women on the streets all looking a little bit lost. If Maddie was right, they all came from different soldiers with whom they had spend the night. Actually, she was a little bit embarrassed about the fact that she was on the street exactly like them. Right now there was no difference between her and those other women. But difference was important wasn't it? If everybody would be the same it would be boring, but when everybody would try to be different hadn't this the same result? In a herd of sheep all look the same. They are all white and fluffy. If one of them would decide to be different everyone would notice it because there would now be a pink sheep in the middle of many white ones. But if they all would decide to be different nobody could tell a difference because there was no normal they could compare it to. Now there would be a herd of sheep which all had different colors and styles. They would be the same again.

The Captain had reached her destination and wasn't surprised that neither Eve nor Cat where there. Only Ann was lying in her bed, well, it looked more like she had passed out and someone had been so kind to put her on something softer than the floor. It wasn't hard to find out who had been so kind since there was Captain Nixon sleeping on the only chair in the room. As she looked closer Maddie could see the traces of tears on Anns face and also the blood on her fingers. It was dry but Maddie couldn't see a wound on the face of her friend. She found the wound when she looked at Nixon a little bit more precise. Actually, there was no need to look precise as the wound was pretty big. Four scratches at an interval of four fingers. It didn't need the abilities of a Sherlock Holmes to deduce what had happened.

"Captain Nixon? Are you all right?" Maddie tried to wake him up but it seemed like he didn't want to. "Don't try it, it doesn't have sense anyway." Captain Winters had appeared and looked knowingly at his best friend. "But he can't stay here." Maddie answered and turned around to look at Winters. "Why not? Just let him sleep and wake Ann up. You two can change your clothing in the next room as well." Maddie nodded and walked to Ann again. "Hey Ann, wake up. We have to leave." "Nah." "Ann, would you please be so kind and get up." "Nah." "Captain Goersen, move your stupid ass out of this bed or I'm going to make myself a new pair of shoes out of your skin." Terrified, Ann sat up in the bed just to look in Maddies satisfied face. "Don't. Do. This. Ever. Again." She snapped but got up and grabbed her clothes. While she was doing this she saw Nixon sleeping on the chair with the scratches on his cheek. "What happened to him?" She asked fully aware of the answer she would get. "You're the only one besides from him who could know it, Goersen." Winters said and looked at her with a facial expression neither Ann nor Maddie had ever seen on his face. "Stop looking at me like that, Captain. Change your clothing you'll leave in less than a hour." Then he turned to Nixon and looked at him with pain.

Maddie and Ann left the room as fast as possible trying not to engage Winters attention on them. When Maddie closed the door she could hear him saying something. First, she wasn't sure whether he had talked to her or not but when she listened again she knew that he didn't talk to her. He was talking to Nix. "God, Nix what did you do? What did we do?"

When Cat woke up she knew exactly where she was. She was lying in the arms of Bill. They were still wearing their clothes since they had only fallen in the bed extremely tired from the dancing and the fun they had. "Are you awake?" Bill asked when he realized her movement. "Not really, but I guess I have to." She answered and snuggled up to him a little bit more."Why?" He asked in her hair, trying to smell as much as possible from her. He knew that they wouldn't see each other for a long time, so his memory would be everything he had from her.

"You may have forgotten it but I'm going to leave today. We won't see each other for a very long time. Well, I don't know how long but it will be longer than two days." They felt silent again trying to keep this moment of peace. "I should really go now." Cat whispered but made no move to get up. "I really should." She murmured nearly falling asleep again."But I could also stay just a few more minutes." Then she felt asleep.

Eve was already on her way home. Although she would have loved to stay longer she had left Eugene as quiet as possible and was now trying to not get recognized by anybody. The rain was something very pleasant for about five minutes but after those it just annoyed her. "Lieutenant Rosenthal?" A voice from behind her asked. The voice belonged to Webster she was sure about that but she was not sure about what he wanted from her. "Yes?" "Do you know what happened to Ann I mean Captain Goersen after she left?" Surprised at those news Eve looked at Web a bit more precise. He looked like he did really worry about Ann although she wasn't worth it. "I didn't even knew that she left. I'm sorry Private. But let me give you a little advice: stay away from her or you'll be faster dead than you think." Then she turned around and literally left Webster out in the rain.

Maybe she had been a little bit harsh but it was better for him to know the truth before he had to make the experience on his own. Eve knew what she was talking about, she knew Ann long enough.

Webster was the only human she met on her way to the shelter and she was glad about that.

"Cat you should really get up now." Bill said for the fourth time, louder than he expected. "I don't want to." It was the first time she answered. "You're going to miss whatever will bring you to the Netherlands." "I know." "Then why don't you get up?" "I want to stay here." "You can't." "But I" A knock at the door. "I guess it's time." Cat sighed, got up and stood there in perfect military shape when Babe entered the room. He looked at the two of them with surprise, shook his head and left the room again. Bill and Cat burst into laugh and couldn't stop until Babe entered the room again. "Lieutenant van Veden they are already asking for you." He murmured, avoiding eye contact with both of them. "Thank you, Private." With a smile on her face she left the room and Bill alone to explain the situation to his friend.

Evelyn had changed her clothes as well as Ann and Maddie and was now waiting for Cat to show up. She had seen the blood on Anns hands but didn't care about the story behind those traces of pain. "I hope Cat shows up soon, we can't go without her." Maddie said deep in thoughts while she was looking out of the window. "That would be a shame, wouldn't it?" Cat was standing in the doorway smiling at the other three. "Change you clothes, we don't have time." Ann hissed from the corner she was standing in and looked at Cat with anger. "Woah, keep calm. It's not my fault that you don't have sex." "Shut up." The Captain grunted and moved forward. "Oh, did I touch a raw nerve? Is Nix gay or what?" Cat moved forward as well looking at Ann like she was going to kill her. "How can you dare? I warn you. One more word. One more word out of your fucking mouth." "Like I would care." Cat responded and then everything happened really fast. In one moment the women were both standing in one corner of the room, in the next they were lying in the middle of it. There was screaming, punching, scratching and cursing and neither Maddie nor Eve made any attempt to stop them. "Bitch!" "Whore!" "Fucking Slut!" "Cunt!" Those were just a few of the words which were used but Eve and Maddie still stood there in silence unsure about what to do next. "Maybe we should" Eve begun but was interrupted by another curse. "Maybe we should do" She started again but couldn't finish her thought again. "Maybe we should do something." She finally screamed at Maddie trying to drown the two fighters. Maddie nodded and pointed at the door while she screamed "Leave!" Slowly, they both exit the room and let Ann and Cat continue their fight.

On the floor they met Winters who looked at them suspiciously. "What's going on in there?" He asked and looked at the door of the room they had just left. "Do you want to hear the truth or something that will let you sleep tonight?" Maddie responded and it seemed like it made her sad to see Winters decide what he wanted to hear. "I guess the truth will smooth me more." He sighed and looked at the two women. "Well, in there are Cat and Ann. There is no logical reason for what happened but now they are lying on the floor and bandy." Maddie answered and stepped aside to let Winters pass. "Although I really like the idea of Ann getting punched in the face I cannot let this happen while I'm next door." He murmured as an apology and entered the room where the two women were fighting. Faster than one of them could react he pulled them apart and started shouting "Captain Goersen, Lieutenant van Veden what were you even thinking to let yourself go like that? Are you completely insane? I could shoot you for this. But I won't since nobody saw you. One more step out of the line and you two are dead, you hear? One more mistake and I'll shoot you. And I will enjoy it." With those words he left the room and the two women both with blood in the whole face.

* * *

"I really didn't think Winters could be like that. He always seemed like this calm, reserved man who would never freak out about anything." Ann tried to start a conversation but immediately felt silent when she felt Maddies annoyed look on herself. The two Captains hadn't exchanged one word till they had left the Easy-Company. Actually, nobody had exchanged a word. They all sat there in silence deep in their thoughts avoiding eye contact.

Cat was thinking about the place she had called her home once. Eve was trying to remember everything of Eugenes face. Maddie was dreaming about the future and Ann had her thoughts allowed to go wherever they wanted to. Mostly, she saw the faces of Lew and Dick. Lew being so surprised and Dick full of pain. She would never forget those faces. The men who trusted her had seen the truth behind her behavior. Not the whole truth but enough of it to understand who she really was. He should have killed her, that would have helped all of them.

"How long will it take?" Eve asked carefully in hope to not bother anyone. "Two days I guess. Sink said that the other would move out in two days but they're going with the planes so they'll be very fast but I don't think that we'll arrive much later." Maddie explained and closed her eyes.

Evelyn nodded and closed her eyes as well and drifted to sleep. She was dreaming about cats and boxes and cats in boxes. It was slightly confusing but in a dream you don't care whether something is logical or not. It just happens and has to be accepted. Maddie did not sleep but she didn't want to talk and it had always been the best solution to pretend that she was sleeping when she didn't want to talk because most of the people were kind enough to not wake her up.

Cat looked at Ann in disgust trying to come up with some new insults. Unfortunately, she had used nearly all already in their fight. But the hate in Cat wasn't erased when Winters pulled them apart. Maybe it stopped to exist for a short time, a really short time, but it was back now, strong again. Strong enough to kill somebody. And Cat would have loved to kill this stupid, arrogant Captain. But that would just cause her more trouble. And although she liked trouble, she didn't need it. At least not when there was still a war to fight and still lives to safe. She was probably the only one of them who had a good reason to fight this war. Eve was there because her husband died and she wanted to continue his war, Maddie fought for a better future, the question was what future, and Ann didn't talk about it.

"Cat?" Ann carefully asked in hope to not get killed in the next five minutes. "What?" The Lieutenant snapped and raised her eyebrow in disgusted expectation. "I'm sorry." Ann whispered and turned her head away again. Cat saw no need to answer as Ann had said everything that had to be said. Sometimes Cat really wondered why Ann was a Captain and she was just a Lieutenant. She was the one with real military training, she was the one who knew what was going on. Maybe Ann had a better self-control but those had disappeared a long time ago. Now Ann was just a splinter of herself. She was a fragile bag of nerves and might get them killed with one word because it was a wrong command.

"Well, Eve. You and Eugene, is it something serious?" Ann broke the silence. Again. But Eve was either still sleeping or had enough character to stay silent. Ann nodded awkwardly and looked at Cat with those stupid eyes which kept to change the color whenever Ann changed her viewing direction. "But you and Bill that's going to be something, right Cat?" She asked with this horrible, knowing smile on her face. But Cat didn't answer either. There was no reason to sink so deep. No reason do make her feel like she was accepted, or even liked. Again, Ann turned her head now facing Maddie. "I never thought you could fall for someone like him. I mean, his not really your type, isn't he?" Cat could see that she nearly broke Maddie but the Captain, who deserved to be a Captain, kept quiet.

Cat could see how confused and distracted Ann was and slowly there was something rising in her. It was rising slowly, like a atomic cloud would rise, but it was there. This feeling of superiority and triumph. It with them was a wish rising. The wish of seeing this woman dead. To see her cold, inanimate body lie in the grass. To see that there was no life in her eyes. Cat didn't wish her a painful dead, at least not at that moment, but she wished her dead.

"Hey Ann." Cat said and was fully aware of the fact that this might seem weak. Ann turned to her again, clearly surprised. "How does it come that you are a Captain? I mean what do you have what neither Eve nor I have? Or has it something to do with what you have done? With how many of them did you sleep? The thing between you and Sebastian was pretty obvious but was there something between you and Aaron as well? Or something with Eddie? Or both?" Ann opened and closed her mouth several times but no sound came out.

"I never knew that was your thing. To confuse men and to use them. But you did never stop, didn't you? I saw how Winters looked at you when we met him in the forest, I realized how Nixon was always starring at you when he thought nobody could see it and I saw how happy Webster was every time when you spoke to him. God, you really had these guys, hadn't you? But you made I mistake. Winters clearly hates you now and I'm sure Nixon lost his trust in you, too. Webster might still believe that you are good inside but he'll see that he's wrong. Poor boy, his first love is such a horrible person. He does deserve something better, don't you think?"

Ann hadn't disturbed her. She just sat there, when Cat had started to talk about Winters, Nixon and Webster now, she had whispered 'no' several times but nothing else had shown any personal movement. Maybe Ann was really that cold person Cat thought or maybe she was just good at hiding. Anyway, neither hiding nor being cold would made her a better person.

"Oh come one. Don't you want to defend yourself? Don't you want to punch me again? I know that you want to do it again! Be brave this one time and do it!" Cat couldn't stop saying all those things to Ann because they were true. She was the good one, Ann the bad one, but no one had ever believed her this. Cat opened her mouth again, there were still so many things she wanted to say to Ann but a hand on her arm stopped her. The hand belonged to an arm, and the arm belonged to Maddie. The Captain hadn't shown any sign of notice till this point, her eyes were still closed but her gesture told Cat enough. It was enough. She should be quiet now although there were so many things left to say. Mainly, because there were so many things left to say. Sometimes it was better to keep quiet.

Actions speak sometimes louder than words ever could.


	7. France

It was raining again. That was the first thing Maddie recognized. The second thing was that it was quiet. Everything was quiet, there was neither breathing nor body movement. But there should be at least a single sign of life. She wasn't alone, that was one thing she was sure about but when this was true there should be something that would show the existence of the others.

The rain was cold when it touched her skin, the gravel scrunched when her feet stepped on it. Everything else was silent. Silent and peaceful. But it wasn't supposed to be silent and peaceful, it was supposed to be tense and full of expectation. Something was wrong. Something had went wrong. Something had ruined everything. Maybe someone. Probably someone. There was always someone who ruined everything. Maddie knew some of these people. But she wasn't sure who of them was it this time. To many to choose. To many, which could have done it. The only thing she could do was to wait. To wait till the culprit would show himself.

When she heard footsteps, Maddie turned around to see who has ruined everything. Standing in front of her was Ann. Of course, who else should have done it. But to Maddies surprise Ann seemed as surprised about the silence as she was. "What has happened?" The other woman whispered pointing at the houses all around them. Maddie shook her head and gave Ann a sign to follow her. Only when they were of the safety of a house again she answered the question. "Honestly, I've got no idea. I'm quite sure someone messed it up. The problem is, I don't know who." Ann nodded and took a glance out of the window. Maddie could see how the eyes of her friend widened in astonishment and stepped at the window as well. There were soldiers out there.

Again, she gave Ann a sign to follow her and both started to follow the soldiers in silence. When the right moment had come, Maddie gave Ann another sign and they moved nearly simultaneously next to the two soldiers and held their weapons at them. "Who are you?" Maddie hissed and looked at the soldiers suspiciously. "Ma'am, we came here with you. Would you be so kind and take down your weapon." One of the soldiers answered, way to loud for Maddies sense of security. "What are you doing here?" Ann asked, not even thinking about taking her weapon down. "I refuse to answer you while you point your weapons at us." The same soldier answered. Maddie shook her head in disbelieve while pointing her weapon at the soldier a little bit closer. "Listen, there are two possibilities you have. The first one, you answer our questions without any refusing. The second one, we shoot both of you. Right here, right now. It's your choice."

Ann could tell that the soldiers really started to worry about their situation. They had either heard some stories about them, which were probably untrue, or Maddies short speech had made them feel so unsure about everything. "As I already said Ma'am, we came here with you. We are on our way to our stash." The soldier who had answered everything had started to speak again. Maddie nodded and pointed with one of her hands behind her. "Why is everything so silent? Were is everybody?" The soldiers exchanged a look but kept silent. "Were is everybody?" Ann repeated Maddies question with even more malice in her voice.

"We don't know Captains, but there's nothing to worry about. Just let us go. We won't cause any trouble." He wanted to say more but Lieutenant van Veden cut him off. "Don't believe them. The whole thing is an intrigue. They wanted to leave tonight. Of course without us. I don't know who gave the order but half of them left already." Ann and Maddie nodded simultaneously at the Lieutenant who had started to smile a little bit. "So, you wanted to leave us? How sad that we found out, don't you think? Well, I guess you know that there's only one opportunity is left." Ann whispered at the two soldiers grinning evilly. Their eyes widened in fear, their breathing became more heavy. They looked like two rabbits caught by the big, bad snake.

"Oh god guys, you really believe this stuff about us being assholes, don't you?" Ann started to laugh and the soldiers relaxed a little bit. "Well, you should." Anns expression changed back again and also the soldiers looked frightened again. "So, what are we doing with those two?" Maddie asked and looked at the Captain and the Lieutenant. "Shoot them." Those two answered in unison. Maddie shook her head in disbelieve and started to look at a point in the distance. "We can't. They are still American soldiers and we can't shoot them, just because we want to. You may not remember Winters words but I do. _One more mistake and I'll shoot you. _I don't think that he was kidding."

* * *

"I still don't believe that it was intelligent to take them with us. We should have gleaned the important information out of them and after this we should have killed them." Cat murmured to Ann who was walking next to her. "I know, but I guess Maddie is right. Winters would have killed us as soon as he would have found out the truth." Ann answered as quiet as possible. "We wouldn't have to tell him the truth." Cat responded, but felt silent when she saw that Maddie was looking at them suspiciously. Cat and Ann were now able to talk to each other again without trying to kill the other one in the next five minutes. Having the same feeling about something makes you forget the differences between you and the person next to you.

Eve was walking in front of the two soldiers and didn't feel very well about it. If one of the other women would make a mistake she would probably be the person who would die first. But fortunately she did trust Ann, Cat and Maddie enough to don't worry about this. Well, she had to trust them.

Evelyn had realized that Ann and Cat were talking to each other again and she was glad about it. It had been really hard to communicate with them when they only hated each other. The others had woken her up after they had decided what to do and shortly afterwards they were already walking. The soldiers which were supposed to accompany them to the Netherlands had, as Cat had found out, already left and so they had decided to continue the walk on their one.

Cat had stolen a map, shortly after they had arrived in France and Ann was able to read it. So, they were walking now with these two soldiers as captives. Eve in front of them, Ann, Cat and Maddie behind them They had all agreed to kill them as soon as they made any wrong movement and to Eve it seemed like Ann and Cat were only waiting for this to happen.

"Stop." Ann said and everyone stopped. She loved this feeling of superiority not only over these two soldiers but also over the other women. That had always been a problem of her. Might. Normally, she was a nice person but if you handed her might she was going to fuck it up. That was something her superiors hadn't known when they had made her a Captain.

Now she was looking at the map checking if they were still on the right way. They were but there was still a long way to go. "God, how I hate all of those stupid bastards." Cat murmured when they continued their walk. Till the others had left them they had cars but those had of course disappeared with the others. Ann hadn't told them that they would probably have to walk for about one more day. One more day, which might kill them because they were good targets or Easy-Company would just forget them in the Netherlands. Or thought they were dead.

"If we would have a Jeep we could do this in less than two hours. But no, of course your little friends had to take them." Ann hissed in the ear of one of their captives while they were walking. The soldier swallowed uncomfortably and walked a little bit faster.

Maddie could hear a car heading towards them and gave them all the signal to hide in the bushes. They had walked now for about six hours without a break and all were happy to have one. The group waited till the car had drove by, then they left there stash again. "Are you sure we're on the right way, Ann?" Maddie asked the Captain with the map. Ann nodded but stopped suddenly. Her facial expression was something between relief and surprise and her look was fixed to a point in the distance. But that distance wasn't in front of them, it was behind them. Maddie turned around and saw what had made Ann freeze. It was the car, again. It came back and made Ann freeze. Well, not the car but who sat inside of it.

Cat turned around as well and so did Evelyn. The four women just stood there waiting for the car to come back. And while they were waiting they forgot their captives. That was very unprofessional and later all of them blamed themselves for being so stupid but in that very moment they were happy. They were happy to see the car and the people inside of it.

Maddie opened her mouth to say something, to scream something but before she could do everything went black and she felt how the world stopped moving. From the corner of her eye Ann saw how Maddie fell down. She saw how Cat fell down. She heard Eve gasp in surprise and then everything went black for her as well. But while she was lying on the ground she could hear everything.

How the car stopped. The heavy footsteps which followed. Some shouts. The bang of a fired gun. Then it was silent.

* * *

Slowly, Ann opened her eyes but closed them as fast as possible when she saw who looked at her. But it was to late. He had already seen that she was back under the living. "Nice to see you again." Nix whispered and smiled. Miserable about the whole situation Ann opened her eyes again and forced a smile. "If I were you, I wouldn't be." She responded and pushed his hand away. His look became sad when she did it but she knew that she had did the right thing. She could see the marks she had left on his cheek.

"I'm sorry Lew. I'm so sorry." She whispered when a tear rolled down her cheek. "It's okay. Everything's okay." He responded and wiped it away. Ann smiled and grabbed his hand. "Thank you." And so they both smiled at each other although there were so many things left to say. So many apologies to make, so many things to clear. At this moment they were just happy to see into each others eyes.

Maddie was already standing again and had watched the whole scene from a distance. She even smiled when she saw both of them happy again. She knew that this happiness wouldn't last long since Winters was walking in the room and looking pretty serious but this moment was granted them. Maddie saw how the Captain exchanged a few words with the other two, how Ann nodded and how Winters turned around again. She also saw how he left and how is facial expression changed to something like a smile but she was the only one who recognized this.

Eve and Cat were sitting at a table talking about what had happened. They both knew that they had made I big mistake by turning around and forgetting the soldiers but that was something they hadn't to worry about any more. One of them was dead, killed by Speirs, the other one would probably die soon, killed by Winters. Those were the men who had sat in the Jeep, those two, as well as Lipton. When Cat had asked them they said that they had been looking for Krauts but the Lieutenant was sure that they were lying. Of course she hadn't told them but she had seen in their eyes that she was right with her assumption. But she was sure that they hadn't lied when they had told her about what had happened after they were defeated.

_We stopped the car and ran towards you. While I kneeled down to check whether you were alright or not Winters started to shout at those two soldiers, believe me you don't want to know what he said. And while he was shouting at them, Speirs just took his gun and fired it. The soldier fell down immediately and the other one is only alive because Winters stopped Speirs before he could shoot this poor soul, too. Well, poor soul is probably the wrong word for him but I wish nobody to get killed by Speirs. _

That was everything Lipton had told her and it was presumably the only story she would ever hear about this. Or at least the only true story. Winters and Speirs had refused to answer her when she had asked them but there were already other stories flowing around.

"So, we're in the Netherlands?" Eve asked again, for the fourth time since Cat hadn't listened to her the whole time. "Yes. These are the Netherlands." "I always expected the Netherlands to be more orange, with more cheese and more clogs." Eve made an excessive gesture with her hand and shook her head. "Have you seen anything orange? Anything?" Cat smiled and opened her mouth to respond something but got cut off by Eugene who head overheard their conversation."Wait till you see, what's going on out there. These Dutchmen are crazy."

"Shall we?" Maddie was suddenly standing behind them and smiled. Both, Cat and Eve, nodded and together the three of them left the aid station. Ann stayed behind, still lost in Nixons eyes.

"God damnit. This is fucking amazing." Cat said to no one in particular, smiling. The whole town was full of happy people, full of people who were glad to see them, who wanted to kiss and celebrate them. Some of the men had already got lost between breasts of a dutch women, but none of them looked unhappy. Even Speirs and Winters, who were usually the ones who kept a straight face had started to smile. The positive atmosphere was everywhere.

"Hey beautiful lady, would you dance with me?" A voice from behind Cat asked and when she saw who had asked there was nothing but happiness in her face. It was the second dance she and Bill shared but this time there were so many more emotions in it. Not only the attraction they had felt from the very beginning but also the feeling of freedom which surrounded all of them. A feeling which wouldn't let anyone of them go away.

"Hey Maddie, have you seen." Eve started but Maddie was already gone. Disappeared in the crowd together with Shifty and when somebody disappeared in this crowd you wouldn't find them this fast again. Everything was orange, everything was on the move. "Hey Eve, I was wondering" But Eugene couldn't finish the sentence as there was already a crying Evelyn lying in his arms.

"Captain Winters?" Speirs appeared next do Dick looking at him suspiciously. "Yes, Captain Speirs?" "Any sign of snipers?" "No. Not at all." "Should we get them moving?" "We certainly should." And so the two Captains started to tell the soldiers that they should move forward. Well, they tried to tell them but it didn't help very much. Shouting didn't help either. The two of them just got lost in the crowd.

Neither Ann nor Nixon had realized what was happening in the town. The two of them had walked in a different direction and were now standing inside of a barn. "It's a barn again." Nixon whispered, suddenly grabbing Anns hand. She looked at him in surprise but couldn't respond anything since he just started to kiss her. It was the first time she kissed somebody since a very long time and it felt good. It felt like it was exactly what was supposed to happen.

But the kiss wasn't the only thing that happened if Ann didn't look out. She knew it but she didn't stop. She just let herself go. Forgot her self-control for one moment and was what she wanted to be. Free. Free and without any obligations. They both let themselves go, only felt the tense between them and the straw below them.

"We shouldn't..." Ann started to point out but Nix was pretty good in letting her shut up. And that surely wasn't the only thing he was good at, Ann realized as the night continued.

"Is it true that you and the Captain had a fight before you left England?" Bill asked and looked proud when Cat confirmed this rumor. "Ahh, that's my girl." He grinned when the Lieutenant looked at him pretending to be offended. And he continued grinning the whole night. It had become night slowly, nobody had seen it come, but also nobody complained about it. It was easier to do what you wanted with the person you wanted to do it with when it was dark. That was something many of them noticed this night without even wanting to.


	8. The Past

„I hope you're kidding me." Eugene looked at Eve in surprise after she had finished her explanation. But she just shook her head, there were still tears in her eyes. "I wish I were." She answered and took his hand firmly. So, they stood there. Smiling at each other. Forgetting the pain, both had felt in their lives, for a moment.

"Doc! Doc!" The shouts teared them apart, again. Eugenes face lost the small smile somewhere when he turned around to look at Buck Compton in expectation. "What's the matter Buck?" He asked and straightened himself. "Penkala got hit by a flying cheese." All three of them tried to keep a straight face but it wasn't possible. While Eve just burst into laughter, Buck and Eugene started to smile."Where is he?" The doctor asked when he controlled himself again a little bit better. "Outside." Eugene nodded and left Buck and Eve back in the aid station.

"Lew?" Ann whispered lying on the straw, wearing nothing. She knew that Lew had been lying next to her the whole night, but now he was gone. "Lew?" She asked again, this time a little bit louder. Still no answer. "God damnit Lew, where are you?" She repeated for the third time. This time there was an answer. "I'm here." Ann turned around and spotted Lew sitting on the floor. He looked sad and like he did regret everything that had happened.

After Ann had dressed she sat down next to the man and laid her arm over his shoulder. "We've got to talk, don't we?" Lew nodded slowly. "What do you want to know?" Lew looked at her with a sad smile on his face. "Why?" Ann nodded and started to talk while she focused on the marks she had left on his cheeks.

"I guess I've got to start with the fact that I've studied physics. I studied physics and, please forgive me this choice of words, I was good. I've been a good physician, that was probably the only thing I've been ever good at, but while being so 'fantastic' I forgot to think. I forgot to think about the results my work might have. Over the fame, I lost my humanity. I didn't care about the lives which could be razed trough the work I did. All I cared about, was the glory I earned.

But one day, they killed my brother. They killed my brother because he knew what was going on and had fought against it. He was one of the guys who knew that Hitler was doing wrong. Well, he got killed because of the truth. After this I started to question my reasons and I realized that I had been an idiot. But of course I couldn't undo the work I already did. I have plenty of skeletons in my closet.

I started to look for a way how I could do the right thing. My brother left me some instructions to be honest. He and Sebastian Wegenbruch were the ones who formed the whole thing. The whole underground organization. Sebastian had always been his best friend and I really liked him. Well, actually we became a little bit closer than we had planned. He taught me everything I had to know for fighting a war and while I learned all this stuff I met the other three. Cat, Maddie and Eve. We liked each other because we were the only women. On a normal base we would have hated each other.

You may remember that we met the Easy Company the first time to help them. Well, that was just because we wanted this town as well, normally we weren't very nice to our fellow human beings. Everybody in the organization was an asshole and mostly fought for himself. You were just, where we were as well.

I have no idea why they left us behind. Probably, really because they didn't need us anymore or at least they thought so. Don't ask me, I've never been good in understanding men. But you know the rest of the story. There's nothing else for me to tell you."

Lew nodded again but kept silent. "Did I ruin everything?" Ann asked but hoped to never hear an answer. Or at least not the answer she would deserve. "No." Nix shook his head and turned his head to look into her eyes. "No matter how hard the truth is, it is always better to hate these than to love the lie." Ann smiled and laid her head on his shoulder. "You're a philosopher Captain Nixon. You truly are."

Maddie and Shifty had spent the night together as well but they had spent it with talking. Talking about the past, and about the things they wished would happen in the future. How they grow up, how many relationships they had. They had talked about all those thing. All those things, which were so unimportant, but still so necessary for a good relationship.

Maddie told Shifty about her parents, how her brother was fighting for the German army and that she was scared that she might kill him. Shifty told Maddie some stories about the time before he was a sniper, the time when he used a gun only to hunt.

"Have you ever thought about the fact this this shit could be over so soon?" Maddie asked and watched Shifty walking around in the room. He stopped wandering around for a short moment and looked at her. Then he nodded and started to walk around again.

"And what about running away?" Gain, Shifty stopped but this time he didn't nod. He just stood there, looking at Maddie in surprise. "What do you mean?" "Have you ever thought about running away? Leaving this stuff behind you?" His jaw dropped. "Okay, Shifty what's wrong?" His eyes widened and he just stood there in silence. Not moving, not making any sound. "Shifty?" Finally, his body came back to live and he nearly ran towards her. He took Maddie by her shoulders and lowered his face.

"Are you mad? Never, I repeat, never talk about deserting. Never." He took a step backwards and his old smile returned on his face. "Have you ever tried real dutch cheese?" Soon, the two of them forget this small incident.

Nixon and Ann had gone back into the town. The streets were empty this time, most of the people were still sleeping, exhausted by the celebrating of the last day. "Lew?" Ann asked after they had walked in silence for a long time. The Captain turned his head and looked at her in expectation. "After I've told you why I am here. Could you tell me something? Could you tell me what happened after we first met? I mean our organization, you guys from the Easy-Company."

Lew nodded, but didn't say anything. Not till Ann opened her mouth again, then he started talking. "Well, Dick came back and told me everything. How you had appeared there out of nowhere, how you guys seemed like you didn't worry about getting killed at all. How you disappeared again. About the note, about your second meeting in the forest. God, you made a great impression on him. He talked about you like you were something more than human. I never heard him talk like this about a woman.

And he really trusted you, he was the one who said that you should say and that just because he trusted you. Hell yeah, he did. And the fact that you did save his ass didn't make this better. He stood at your bed all day long when you were in your coma or whatever this was. He wanted to thank you and he wanted to tell you what he really thought but he wasn't able to. He was scared. Or something like that.

But don't ask me why he was like that when you, well, when, I mean, when this thing happened" Nix stroked over his cheek. "Maybe he couldn't understand that you were human too, that you made mistakes, that you could freak out, that you could hurt his best friend. Yes, I consider myself as his best friend. He just couldn't handle the fact that you had done something wrong. And also, I guess that,"

Lew stopped talking and walking at the same time. "Well, I guess, he," Ann waited for him to continue. "Well, I guess, he didn't like the idea that I could have fallen in love with you." He said and started walking again. Ann expected him to say more but he didn't. "Did you?" She asked after they had walked in silence again. Lew shrugged his shoulders and continued the walk. When they had reached their destination, his and Dicks shelter, he stopped again.

"Maybe I did. But how could you do so, while fighting a war? Isn't this just stupid? Aren't we just stupid?" He asked while he stepped trough the door. He let Ann stand outside. Let her stand there deep in thoughts.

"Hey Bill?" Cat asked, sitting on a chair, looking at the man lying in the bed. She knew that he was awake but they hadn't talked since she had realized it. "Yes?" The answer came promptly. "What else did they tell you? What stories did you hear about me?" She heard how he chuckled, with his face under the pillow. "Tell me!" His face appeared from under the pillow, with a big smile on his face.

"Well, some people told me that you loved to drink, others said that I should never give you something, if I wanted to continue my live in peace. Some said you were tough as hell, others said they'd seen you crying. Well, I never believed those guys. I always said: Lieutenant van Veden doesn't cry, the first tear she'll shed will be the last one and it will be, when she dies. But she won't die very soon, so no one of us will ever see it."

Cat started to laugh about his words, but there was a sad undertone. In both, in his words and her laugh. Both of them knew that it was very likely that one of them would die. The war wasn't over, and it wouldn't stop because they loved each other. "You really think I never cry?" Cat suddenly asked with a dead serious voice. Bill stopped smiling and raised his eyebrows. "You're right about that." She laughed, and he joined in.

"So, will you offer me something to drink, or not?" Cat asked, when they both were catching breath. Bill just shook his head in response, but got up anyway and started to dress himself. Cat watched him with delight.

* * *

"Hey, Ann?" Ann turned around, but was fearing the words that would follow. Dick hadn't talked to her since England and this last meeting hadn't went very well for her. "Yes?" Dick stopped in front of her, suddenly looking unsure about what to do next. "I just wanted, I wanted to, god, I wanted to." Ann saw that he wouldn't be able to form any sentence that would have made sense, so she just cut him off.

"Dick, I've got to apologies. I'm sorry, for hurting you, if I did so and I'm sorry if I did offend you in any way. I''m a horrible person, if you need any proof for this, look at Nix, or ask him." "I already did." Dick interrupted her and did something she hadn't expected. He smiled. "Maybe, we could start again? I'm Captain Richard Winters. Please, call me Dick. I'm very glad to meet you."

She shook his hand and smiled. "I'm Captain Ann Goersen, call me idiot. I didn't know, that you had something like a sense of humor." They both just stood there and smiled at each other. They neither realized how long now why, but they did it. They did it and enjoyed it.

"Well, Captain Winters what are the next plans?" Ann asked after deciding that they had stood there long enough. "If you follow me, I'll show you." Winters answered. Again, she was walking together with a man towards the shelter, of him and his best friend. The only difference was that this time, they hadn't slept with each other.

"So, you and Lew, is this something serious?" Dick casually asked while they were walking. "Um, I don't know, I mean, we haven't really talked about it and I guess" Ann stumbled, not able to decide what to say. She didn't know, what this thing between her and Lew was, but something inside of her was sure that it wasn't love. Maybe it was friendship, maybe it was just the point that they understood each other on a certain base.

"No, I don't think that it is something serious. How could it, anyway? If he had to choose one person he would never want to loose, it would be you." Ann finally said, hoping not to offend Dick. And from the smile he gave her, she was convinced that she didn't. Maybe there was more between those two Captains than anybody knew.

When they had entered the shelter, Dick pulled out the plans and laid them across the only table in the room. And while he explained there next movements Ann got lost in his visage. And on the inside she felt the same as she did when they had met the first time, the only difference this time was that she knew that nothing would happen. Because she had already ruined everything.

"Ann? Are you even listening?" Dick asked and raised his head. Ann was just standing there, next to him, looking like she had seen a ghost. "Are you alright?" Suddenly, the brightness in her eyes came back, but she still looked absent. "Ann?" After this question, she reacted the first time. She nodded, and something like a smile appeared on her face. "I'm sorry, Dick. What were you saying?" And then he started to explain it all again, this time noticing whether she was really listening or not. She was.

Eve hadn't moved since he had left the aid station, that was the thing Eugene noticed first. The second thing was that she looked even more terrible, then before he had left. The third thing was that outside a bird was singing. "Hey, Eve, what's wrong?" He asked as he said down next to her. She just shook her head, but took his hand into hers. "You can tell me." He whispered but still there was no phonetic response. "Eve, please."

"What do you know about me?" She abruptly asked. "What facts, about me, about my past, do you know?" She looked at him with tear-dimmed eyes, and for Eugene it seemed like all of the happiness he had ever felt had just disappeared into nowhere. "You're a Lieutenant, you drink alcohol, but you don't smoke. You come from a underground organization nobody ever heard of. You are afraid of crowds and you hate orange. You have been married, but your husband died."

"How do you know?" Eve asked and regarded him intently. "God, I don't remember. Someone told me, but to be honest I've got no idea who it has been. Probably Bill or so." She nodded.

"Well, it's right I have been married, and believe me I have been happy. He, Jean, my husband, was a great man. He fought for the right causes and was all in all just perfect. Well, for me he was. He was the reason that I joined this 'organization', he told me about the bad that had happened. I would have never done anything. I would have waited. I didn't care about what was happening around me, as long as it didn't affect me. I was a horrible person, I still am. I'm not the type who does things, like Cat, I'm the type who waits till it is over.

Please, don't ask me why I tell you this, maybe because I want you to know the worst about me, maybe because I have the feeling like I won't survive this shit. Do you know what Cat told me, on our walk with these to soldiers. She told me that I had become slow, that I wasn't as fast as I used to be, when we first met. I don't know where this slowness comes from, but it is there. And it will never leave me."

Cat and Bill both had drunken to much. None of them would have admitted it, but it was the truth. They were blind drunk, but one thing about Cat was, that she was the most intelligent when she was like that. At this point of condition, her thoughts just flew away and came back with results, she would never have when she were sober.

"Perfection is nothing you realize promptly, perfection is in the small, unprepossessing details. It demands to be found, it forces you to find it. But sometimes perfection is not the best thing that can happen to you." She said, looking at Bill who laid in one corner of the room. "What did you say?" He murmured, clearly drunk as hell.

"You know, I always thought that my life was perfect. That I did everything right, that I did what I should do. But somewhere on my path, I lost my past. I lost the person I used to be, and no she is gone forever. It feels like my soul has been split into two parts and of them just flowed away.

Have you any idea why I am here? I don't know. I guess I just wanted to use a weapon and kill people, I clearly don't care about who these people are. As long as there is somebody to kill, I'd do it. Does this make me a bad person?"

Bill had already fallen asleep. "No, I don't think so. I mean, I am human, right? I have flaws and maybe one of those is that only want to kill. I want to see, how the light in the eyes of my enemies goes out. I want to see them die." With those words she took another sip and her thought drifted away again.


	9. The End

"We are leaving today guys." With those words Winters ended his speech and let the soldiers leave. He knew that they were excited, as this could be the last march out they would ever do. This could be the fight, which would end everything. Which would save so many lives.

"Dick?" Ann asked after she had stood behind Winters for quite a while. He turned around and smiled at her, the sad smile she had seen in the eyes of so many soldiers. This sad smile, that used to appear when the leader knew that it wouldn't be as easy as the soldiers thought. When the leader knew more, but didn't tell his guys because he didn't want to destroy their hopes.

"You should have told them." She whispered and laid her hand on his shoulder. It was a gesture of understatement, of reliance, but also of comfort. She had felt what he felt know. She knew how hard it was, to don't tell them how hard it would be. His smile changed a little bit, became a bit more happy, but was still full of pain.

"Before we leave, could you tell me something? I mean, if it's not to much to ask." Ann tried to avoid looking in his eyes but she couldn't. Something just kept her view fixed on his eyes, something she didn't understand. "I'll try to." He answered and pushed her hand from his shoulder. "You remember this day, when just everything was wrong? When Cat and I were, well, you know what we did. Maddie told me something, and I'm quite sure neither she nor me are supposed to know this but, it's to late anyway. You said something to Nix, something that is stuck in my head since Maddie told me. 'What did you do? What did we do?' And I never understood it, I guess I'm not supposed to understand, but I thought, I could just ask you."

Winters eyes widened a bit while he listened to Ann, but then he nodded. "Well, I can tell you, I've lied enough today. There was a promise we gave each other, which is probably stupid, but it kept his head clear and held my worries down. It was the promise, that our friendship will hold no matter what happens. This might sound stupid to you, but for me, for us, it was something really necessary. But then you appeared. And this friendship didn't work very well anymore. Whenever he talked about you I couldn't stand it, because it was so positive, and he couldn't listen to me. Because I said horrible things about you. We didn't keep our promise."

Ann nodded and shook her head in disbelieve. "I'm sorry. I'm really sorry." Winters nodded and turned around, he left her, while Ann still had to handle that she had nearly teared apart two of the best friends, that could exist.

"Ann? Are you alright?" Maddie asked when she found Ann standing there, all alone. Her friend nodded but didn't look like she was. "You know that you can tell me." She added, in hope to help her friend whatever the matter was. The war was nearly over, it was time to forget the old conflicts. "Well, Winters just told me that I nearly ruined his friendship with Nix, and that's a horrible feeling. I mean, why do I have to be so stupid? Why? I, god, I am really stupid. What was I thinking? What?!" Maddie nodded and then grabbed Anns arm. "We're going for a walk."

"Cat?" Eve had walked trough the whole city, without finding any sign of her best-friend. She had asked every soldier she had met, but none of them had any idea. The only thing they all pointed out was that they hadn't seen Bill either. But that was no surprise for Eve, it was actually the thing she had expected.

"Cat?" She asked again, although she had no hope that anybody would answer her. Her friend was probably lying in some bed, together with Bill and slept. "Yes?" She suddenly heard a voice answer. The voice was incredibly quite but it was definitely there. And it definitely belonged to her friend, the question was where she was lying.

"Oh, Cat." Eve murmured when she finally found her friend lying on the floor in the house she was standing next to. Cat didn't look bad, she looked horrible. "I'm fine. I just, I just drank to much." Her friend whispered and slowly sat up. "Water?" Eve asked, but didn't wait for an answer. She knew her friend well enough, water in her face would be the only thing that could save the day.

"We're leaving very soon." Eve explained after Cat looked a little bit better. Her friend blinked several times, then nodded. "Actually, we're leaving today." The same strange answer. "They say the war is nearly over." The answer again, for the third time. "We could survive this shit." Again, the answer, but it was the first time, that Eve felt like it was the right way to answer, although it was still a strange way.

"The guys told me, that haven't seen Bill. Do you know where he is?" Eve asked. "He's alright, he is already preparing for leaving." Cat responded and both of them got up.

* * *

"Captain Hegenstein, Lieutenant Rosenthal, Captain Speirs, you take the right side together with the 2nd platoon, Captain Goersen, Captain Nixon, front side with the 3rd platoon, Lieutenant had reached the 3rd platoon they saw, that the men had by now all realized that it wouldn't be as easy as they had all thought. They had realized that they would fight again, and that it would be harder than ever before. Everywhere around them it was quite, nearly to quite. Not one bird was singing, no bugs were humming.

"We are taking the front, which means that we will be the biggest target. As far as we know there is a sniper up there, which will probably take us as his main target, so look out. There is no need to run all the way into the town, by one time. Hide behind bushes or whatever seems to work. The 1st and the 2nd platoon are going to attack as soon as the Germans saw us." Nixon explained, after he had finished he said something very unusual for him. "Good Luck." The the attack began.

Ann was one of the first to run out of the bushes, and she could feel how the Germans shot at her. Every now and then there was a slight whistle at her ear, which told her how scarce it had been that time. She was heading towards a shed, which seemed like a good place to hide.

When Cat saw that the attack had started she gave the men the signal to start running as well. The usual feeling of excitement and fear had agitated her and so the Lieutenant started sprinting. But she hadn't gone very far when she felt that something had hit her. Her body tensed for a short time, then she just felt down. Behind a bush, were nobody could see her.

Winters was running. He was running like the devil was on his feet. But, actually, the devil was in front of him. He saw how some soldiers fell but he didn't stop. He couldn't, because this could kill him. He had made it behind a hay bail and was now waiting for the others to catch up. He didn't hear that Buck Compton tried to tell him something. He didn't even see him. He only saw him when Bucks head peeked out from behind a bush. Then he saw the gestures which made him leave his stash. When he turned around the next time, he saw how the hay bail was nothing but a smoky hole in the soil, and how Buck Comptons body was motionless lying behind his bush.

Ann had made it behind the shed and was now waiting. She had no idea, what she was waiting for, but it seemed to be the right decision. Every now and then, she fired a shot at the Germans and barely missed. It was a good feeling to be in combat again. Slowly, the fire of the Germans dropped and it seemed like the Americans were winning. In fact, they were. When Ann peeked around the corner, she saw their last enemy. She saw him. She saw...the sniper.

"Captain Goersen?" She turned around, when she heard Shiftys voice behind her. "You have seen him, haven't you?" Ann asked and their sniper nodded. "We've got one chance, Shifty. I really hope you don't miss." With those words the Captain started running. And Shifty hit. He hit the sniper, but not the MG hidden behind the next house. He only saw how Ann fell down, then the MG was hit, too. It was the first, and also the last shot Captain Lewis Nixon had ever fired. But it was already to late.

He ran towards her and knelt down, looking hopelessly at the blood which was leaving her body so fast. The only thing he could do, was to bed her head on his legs and to wait. Ann looked so tiny, so broken. Her eyes were still open, but Lew could see how the light in those was flowing away.

"I'm sorry Lew. I'm so sorry." She whispered when a tear rolled down her cheek. "It's okay. Everything's okay." He responded and wiped it away. But this time it wasn't okay. This time it was everything else than okay. "Hang though, my friend." Ann whispered and then closed her eyes. Closed them and would never open them again. Somewhere a bird started singing.

The war was over but it had cost many lives. Not only Anns but also Cats. Both had died how they had always wanted it to happen. Ann with a heroic act, Cat silent without the notice of anybody. And also many soldiers of the Easy Company had given their lives. Buck Compton had died when he saved the live of Captain Winters. Bull Randleman died because of the stupidity of a replacement. This replacement died as well. Floyd Talbert didn't survive the attack by a German grenade and died at the side of George Smith. Those men weren't the only ones that fell but those were the men Maddie felt worst about. Those men had been her friends, had been the people she could trust.

"What are you going to do now?" Winters asked and looked at her with sad eyes. "I don't know. America, England, Germany...I've got many possibilities. I'll look for a job as a nurse or something like that. We'll see." Maddie shrugged her shoulders. She didn't want to tell Winters that she would go wherever Shifty was going although the Captain probably already knew it. He maybe wasn't very good with emotions but he wasn't dumb.

"Good luck." Winters nodded and left her alone. Maddie was sure that he was going to Nixon. His best friend, the man he had nearly lost. Maddie herself would now look for Shifty. He had to be somewhere. For a short moment she also thought about looking for Eve but then she pushed this idea to the back of her mind. She wouldn't be able to look into the eyes of the only person left, out of the persons she had started this war with.

Maddie was wandering around and saw into many happy faces. Those men finally felt free again, like they had survived a war. Well, they had survived one. And with a bit luck they would never fight another one. "Captain Hegenstein?" Bill asked and looked at her with the same sad eyes as Winters had. "Stop calling me Captain, please." Bill nodded and started again. "Maddie, what will happen with Cat and Captain Goersen?" That was the question Maddie was afraid of. What would happen with the dead bodies of her friends. "I don't know. I guess, we can just wait." Bill nodded and disappeared in the middle of all those cherish soldiers which celebrated.

In the distance she spotted Shifty, alone, smoking a cigarette, sitting on a fence. Maddie continued her way, now facing him, ignoring everyone who tried to speak with her. She didn't want to talk, she wanted to calm down. Maybe to forget, but definitely to ignore for a moment. To ignore that the world was still moving, that there were still people who laughed and married the people they loved in exactly this moment. That there could be happiness somewhere.

When she sat down next to Shifty, he didn't show any sign of recognition, but she knew that he had realized her appearance. Not because he said anything or did anything, she knew it because the way he looked changed a little bit. Just a little bit.

Eve was wandering trough the town. She neither knew where everybody was nor where she was going. She only knew that she was on the run. One the run from the memories. On the run from all the things that had happened. How they had told them that the war was over, how she had found out that her best friend was dead. Those were the things she wanted to forget, at least for a few minutes. When Winters had asked her whether she wanted to see Cat or not, she had shaken her head, knowing that if she would say yes, she would break down.

Bill was the one who had found Cats dead body and he had seen that there was the track of a tear on it. So, he had been right. At least, one time. He was the one who had told Winters and Maddie about the loss. For him, it was the last possibility to do something good, for this woman. For this woman, who had meant so much to him.

Lew had watched the others evacuate Anns dead body, and was still standing there. Her blood on his clothing had already dried, but it didn't bother him. Nothing, did bother him. "Lew?" Dick laid his hand of the shoulder of his best friend. "Yes?" His friend turned around and Winters saw that their had been tears. But, who would judge him for this. They all had been so close, to surviving, to leaving this war behind them. Most of them made it, the blood of the others was now wetting the streets of the town.

"She wasn't alone, that's the most important." Dick said, and hugged his friend. It was the first time, that came each other physically so close, but it felt right. It felt exactly like it should.


End file.
